The Eye of Re
by Felicia Angel
Summary: The theft of three sacred artifacts leads a woman with incredible power to the Aurora for help and her own purposes. SAJVYGO crossover
1. The Fool and The Hanged Man

Title: The Eye of Re

Author: Felicia Angel, the Volcanic Alchemist

Fandoms: The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne/Yugioh

Rating: R (or high PG-13, but I would say R)

Warnings: blood/gore, cursing

Category: Supernatural/fantasy/horror

Disclaimer: _The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne _is the property of Gavin Scott, Talisman Crest, and many others. _Yugioh_ is the property of Kazuki Takahashi and Shonen Jump, as well as a few others. The only thing I own in this is the situation, a few characters, some plot holes, and a pack of Egyptian Tarot cards which seek to inspire me for each chapter.

(notes on events, in case you're not familiar with either fandom, are at the end of each chapter)

**Prologue: The Fool**

"_Punishment—Man as a slave of matter takes his mistakes with him, heading for new mistakes."—The Egyptian Tarot_

She watched the dark man from Egypt as he slowly moved through the building, amazed at the audacity of him and his tribe. Did they truly think she was an idiot who wouldn't know the moment they arrived at this new place she called a home? Did they think her a fool?

Perhaps not, but either way she wasn't going to stand for him walking so bravely into the lion's den without a fight. Few could claim to have done that and lived, and those who could she would praise easily.

But not these men. Never them.

She stopped near the exhibit on Egyptian culture and the man halted next to her, looking at the empty coffin that had been brought to New York a few months ago. "What do you want?" she growled in Egyptian to the man.

"I bring bad news," he replied in the same language after flinching from the sound.

"Define 'bad'."

"…some of the Seven Secrets are missing."

She considered this and finally snorted. "This is my problem how, exactly? You are the ones who are supposed to guard them, not me. I turned my back on all but one of the Seven and I'm not about to help out the others."

The man looked at her with lavender eyes and finally said, "It's larger than that, Mig--."

"Call me that at risk of your life," she interrupted him in a low voice, "You are not one I've allowed to call me that."

The man looked at her, fear once more in his features, and finally nodded before continuing, "The Rod, the Ankh, and the Eye. Those are the ones missing."

She felt herself stiffen as she realized what the situation implied, or at least what it could mean. Those three particular items…well, two of them, anyway…but still.

_Had they the Ring as well…I fear what might still be left over in that cursed Item. Forgive me, Mahaado, but after your death that's all that it was._

"And?"

"While we have the knowledge of their precise locations, we lack the resources to gain them back."

She glared at him, "You mean none are able to handle the 'Secrets', and thus you think that I must be the one to do it? What is in this for me?"

He shifted and shook his head, "Nothing. Even we do not know where the Tomb is, but when we do find it, or hear word of the Pharaoh's—"

She looked over at him and told him, "If any go near his tomb, all I ask if that you let them."

"…let them?"

"I have my reasons for it. The Tomb is a Puzzle, and thus must be solved before the Pharaoh can return."

The man looked at her and she continued, "I will get the three you have lost, if you allow that Tomb to be opened by someone at some point, and see if anyone can ever figure out the Puzzle."

-o-

The young man paused at the doorway to his temporary lodging, wary of many things, one of them being the fact that he had received a vision from the Tauk. He had not told the Mighty One (1) of his possession of it, because he was unsure as to how she would react. It was partly known that she had no good thoughts towards those who were chosen to bear one of the Seven Secrets, not since the Nameless Pharaoh and his priests, and her malice that had been directed towards him at the museum was open and obvious.

She hated those with the Seven Secrets, even more so than his—

No, he couldn't think on that. He didn't want to. He couldn't.

The door opened and he stepped in only to have a gun pointed at his face, nearly touching the bridge of his nose.

"Ah, you must be Saim. Welcome. Please, come in."

Saim sighed and walked inside, the gun's wielder moving back as he stepped forward and someone else closed the door. There would be at least three of them, and sadly he had little to no experience in fighting. One of the many reasons why he wished—

He wished—

"Now, we've heard that the Item you are currently wearing can't be taken off unless it finds a new owner. Our orders are to bring you back alive." The man's smile grew insane and dangerous. "Count Gregory wants a word with you."

"You will not make it out with me."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me," Saim said, his eyes bold, "You will not make it out of this room alive."

"Are…you actually…threatening me?" the man's insane smile was now replaced by one of rage before he brought the pistol around to hit Saim hard on the side of his face, causing him to see stars and his head whipped to the side from the force of the blow. "Don't threaten me! You are nothing, you desert heathen! Nothing! Do yourself a favor and accept that your life will go towards the League and its continued support of the rightful order of things?"

A cool voice cut in, "You are all very pitiful. Perhaps I should consider this a mercy killing."  
Before the two men on either side of him could respond, both were suddenly cut down, their eyes still amazed while their bodies parted down the middle, blood and organs spilling onto the floor and slightly spraying Saim and the man with the gun. Saim felt himself turned around, the gun now placed on his temple. Some blood had splattered the now-darkened wall behind him, and was being absorbed as the Mighty One walked out, her eyes nearly glowing like that of a lion's at night, and beside her a larger pair of glowing eyes…no…_three _pairs.

Her outfit was different from that of before, now taking on a look that seemed to have been from ancient Egypt, though instead of the usual white or animal-skin color, it was the color of blood. Faintly through the material, he could see what appeared to be scarring or a tattoo that spanned her upper chest and over the tops of her arms, near the shoulders.

"Stay back! If you don't, I'll kill him! He holds the Tauk, he should be important to you!"

A long, curved sword turned slightly and she smirked, an evil glint in her tawny-colored eyes. "Perhaps he should be, but he's not. And you are nothing more than garbage and scum. Why I even wasted my time talking to you is beyond me."

The man growled at her and now pointed the gun in her direction. "I don't care what you are doing, slut, but I will have what I came for! I will deliver this man to Count Gregory, and the League of Darkness will ensure that democracy dies!"

The Mighty One's smile grew wider, and if possible, even more cruel. "Count Gregory and the League of Darkness? I thank you for that information. Now…" she pointed to him and for a second he saw what appeared to be a type of joy in her contempt-filled eyes, "muat (2)."

Faster than the man could realize, or fire off his gun at either of them, the dark body of an giant asp came from the shadows and struck his hand, causing him to cry out in alarm and drop the gun, as well as releasing his hold on Saim. As he watched the man back away in terror at having been bitten, Saim heard the Mighty One's low chuckle at the intruder's fear.

"The poison won't kill you. My lovely Merew (3) will. Merew…"

No command was needed, but Saim turned as the monster, a being of the Shadows, leapt, the giant lion claws tearing into the man while the asp which served as a tail hissed and the dark red wings covered the carnage from view. They couldn't, however, silence the last scream and gurgle the man uttered as he was attacked and devoured.

The Mighty One turned to him. "You didn't mention you were the owner of the Tauk." Before Saim could reply, she gave him what appeared to be a slightly warm smile. "I congratulate you. Normally, that particular Secret chooses women."

Saim nodded. "So I am told."

The Mighty One looked over to where the crunch of bones and flesh could be heard before saying, "I told you I would find you the missing Secrets, and I will. That scum gave me information, however I will need your help."

"My help?"

"You are here not just because those three are missing. You are here because of who took them."

Saim was amazed that the Mighty One would know such a thing but finally bowed. "It was my sibling. Because I and my brother were chosen to bear the Secrets and because she could not, she stole them. She wishes to give them to a being of power so that they can look into the past and create more, or even resurrect the Pharaoh himself."

The Mighty One snorted. "Your sibling is an idiot. Though considering the danger you walked into willingly, I can not say much better for you either." She paused and then waved one hand. The sword, as well as the darkness and her monster, her _ka _servant, disappeared, as did the stains and her outfit, which changed to the normal clothing of a middle-class man though Saim knew she was a woman, and others could tell as well. Why she chose this mode and why no one spoke to her of it…he didn't know and could only guess that it was due to her inapproachable nature. For all her beauty, she was as cold as ice, or gold.

_Perhaps the legends are true_, Saim thought while the Mighty One looked around the room before saying, "Pack. We must leave."

"Leave?"

"We are going to find the Secrets. That requires us to leave. If you wish, book passage to England on a ship, the fastest you can find or afford. I will use my own way."  
He blinked at her and finally found the courage to ask, "You are going after one of the Secrets?"

She looked at him and finally nodded. "I can feel them, and one is in the air between here and England. I will meet you there, and from that point, we will go after those who would disturb the Secrets."

_Perhaps…_

Saim thought of the legends as he quickly packed his things, not noticing the Mighty One leave the room as he did so. Legend said that the monsters of the Shadows appeared from men's hearts, and the Seven Secrets were to protect the land from foreign invaders as well as keep the peace within by extracting the evil monsters and imprisoning them. The Six Priests, and the great Pharaoh, were those who held that peace.

Then the peace shattered, and the monsters began to appear again. One of the Priests went against the Pharaoh, and sometime during that battle, the great Pharaoh gave up his life to save his land, giving up his title to the Priest he had been fighting.

The specifics were never told, lost in time, just like the Pharaoh's real name.

Lost to all but one, the one who had been present at the final fight, the one who had been pushed back and now waited for the return of her Pharaoh.

The Mighty One, Sakhmet, who had protected the Pharaoh during his reign, had quit Egypt and vowed not to return until the time when she had her Pharaoh's blessing. Within her, it was said, were three Items, made from the same gold as the Secrets themselves, but younger and more raw, their power different but just as damning. One was said to be wrapped around her heart, so that she could love no one, could care for no one, but the Pharaoh himself.

His meager items packed, Saim now turned only to realize the Mighty One had left long ago, leaving him alone in his musings. He turned only slightly before seeing the ticket which would get him to England, and breathed a silent prayer to the gods for the blessing, as well as smaller prayers for those who would end up between the Mighty One and her goal.

She was gone to retrieve the first of the three missing Secrets.

1—My character's title is Sakhmet, which was the name of a lion-headed goddess of war and pestilence. One of the names she was known by was 'Mighty One'.

2—Egyptian for 'die/death'

3—Egyptian for 'desert'

**Chapter 1: The Hanged Man**

"_Expiation—Devotion is a divine law from which no one is exempt."—The Egyptian Tarot_

Early in her life, there was fire and death.

She remembered little of her life before that, but if she thought hard enough she remembered her mother's hands and her sibling's laughter, her father's strong arms wrapping her in a hug, and her watching him create weaponry for the Pharaoh's army.

But she learned it was weaponry, and for the Pharaoh's army, after she had arrived back in the palace.

After the cult had taken them all, all but her.

Ninety-nine lives to create Seven Items, the Seven which protected the kingdom of Khmet from the invaders which threatened it and the families. If the Pharaoh had known of the cost, would he have still allowed it to happen?

Nine people, her family, received the same treatment, and out of that came enough for three small items, barely what was needed.

And when they were still hot and unformed, she stole them and the last creation her father had been making: the hilt of a sword.

She had dipped the hilt into the liquid and it had absorbed a third of it, creating for her a perfect weapon, one which was hers and hers alone, one which could be any size, and edged or blunt weapon, anything that could be made she could recreate from that hilt.

She dipped her hand in and rubbed it over her chest and it created a gold-blood tattoo that burned like fire as it took form, but she accepted it. It made her strong, it protected her and those she wished to protect from the harm that others might face.

With the last bit, she formed a scarab beetle, the symbol of eternal memory and life, and shoved it into her heart.

When she had awoken, she knew what she had done. She knew she was now different, and could no longer be a scared little girl.

She sat up and saw herself near the tombs, and saw one who would raid it, who would steal from the dead, from those who had departed this world to the land beyond, the land which she had seen herself for a brief moment and walked in only to be pulled out.

The man's body, the pieces and insides strewn across the opening of the tomb as a warning for others and avoided by the vultures and other beasts that feasted on dead flesh was only the first of many warnings over the next five years. And it was from those who were left alive, those who saw only a glimpse of her and the dark animal she had found was now attached to her, that she got the name which other granted her, which only those who guarded the Pharaoh's tomb knew her by.

Sakhmet, the Mighty One, the Goddess of War, the Eye of Re.

The embodiment of divine punishment.

-o-

With a graceful step, she got off of Merew and quickly set about to killing all those on the deck. The flying fortress had not seen her coming in the darkness that suddenly consumed them, and for one of the first times in millennia, she had brought out her other monsters as well, though they had attacked various other spots. Merew, her lion-asp chimera, was quickly eating those which tried to harm it, or had the stupidity to not throw themselves from the rail for a quick if long fall to their death.

At least it would be painless, a drop into the ocean. But these men seemed to want to protect the ship and its contents. She never understood the fanatical worship of those who tied themselves to an organization. Perhaps it was brainwashing, or simply never knowing anything else. She had known life and had known that she could've lived a normal life had she not taken the blood-gold that had been made from her family's bodies, but she had, and now she had a sword that could easily cut down those in her path, a tattoo that granted her and those around her some protection as well as helped her call upon the monsters she had long ago bonded to her and now loved, and the scarab-beetle heart. That had kept her alive, that had her own type of devotion, but to one thing.

The man before her was cut in half across the waist, sending his top half over the side, while the man beside him, frozen in fear of this girl covered in blood and with glowing lion eyes, looked at him only a moment before she slammed his head into the narrow edge behind him and, grabbing his gun, used it to pin him up.

It was not an easy task, and while she knew she shouldn't be taking so much time, she still enjoyed this.

She was doing what she has always done since she got the Items, since she had awoken and taken down the first of many bandits. She was being herself once more, being the person she was supposed to be, being the one who had been called Sakhmet not just because she guarded the tombs of the kings, but because of her bloodthirsty nature, because some said that if she had the chance, she would destroy all of humanity, or those she deemed unworthy, and become sick off their blood.

That was untrue.

She would only kill those that _got in her way._

As she went inside, meeting more men and killing them quickly, or bloodily depending on the room and the situation, she considered something of importance when she came up to a fork. If one was alive, they might be able to lead her to whichever of the Secrets was onboard and then she could kill him.

A group came from her left and she quickly killed all but one, pinning him with a bayonet through his right arm before grabbing it, forcing the man to stay in place or lose an arm.

"Now, I have to ask this, and if you don't answer me truthfully I will have to cut open your stomach and use the hole to chop up your organs while they're still inside of you. Where is the Item?"

"I—I—"  
"That's not an answer," she made her blade smaller and placed it where his stomach would be, "Try 'left' or 'right'."

"L—left…"

"I see. Come on, then." She spun him around and made him move down the corridor for a while before she became aware of the fact that there were no more guards.

Strange, she didn't realize she had killed all of them so quickly. Perhaps she had misjudged the amount of people on the ship?

The good grunt lead her to the room, and she looked over to see that it was the Ankh which had been placed here. Around the room were the bodies of men who had tried to possess it and had their souls burned for it.

"It doesn't matter…no one can touch it!" he told her, "no one is the right person!"

"Of course not," she told him, shoving him against a wall nearby and then walking over to pick up the Ankh. Her tattoo glowed briefly before the tattoo of an ankh appeared on her arm and the Ankh itself disappeared. She smiled and looked back to see that her injured guide had decided running while she wasn't looking was the best option.

Oh well. Survivors always made it all the better, especially if he did get back to that 'Count Gregory' that the other man had spoken of. That would mean he would know about her and about what she could do. That might give him time to prepare or run.

Either way, she would have some fun for the time being.

She walked back out of the room and into the fresh air, the bodies littering the place and the ship starting to descend for lack of crew and possibly due to a fire that one of her monsters had created.

Ah well.

Merew came over to her and sniffed, while the other two walked up and looked out. She looked out as well before seeing what appeared to be another airship, this one calmer and seemingly more relaxed, flying rapidly the other direction. If it was the ship that the man had escaped on or simply a different ship altogether, she didn't know or care to.

She had one of the Secrets. She could find the rest, and while she did, she could destroy those who would dare steal from their own family and from the memory of those whom she had served with.

_Set. Mahaado. Karim. Shada. Isis. Mana. Siamon. Even Akunadin._

_Pharaoh…my Pharaoh, my sebah_ (1)…

The girl sighed sadly and put a hand to the scar which covered over her heart, and which had looked like a blood-red ankh tattoo, and remembered.

-o-

_She watched the two boys fight before sighing. Why she had agreed to take the role as their mentor, at least when it came to fighting, was beyond her. She had saved the Pharaoh's son and the young boy who had helped him, but the cost was the Pharaoh's wife and the young boy's mother as well. Perhaps this was a punishment because she hadn't been quick enough to save the wife…_

_She walked over and used the flat ends of the two wooden swords she had brought to hit both of their heads, causing the two to collide and then fall to the ground. Both looked up at her and she was now able to take in her new charges. The smaller boy had a height made up almost entirely of his hair, which was multicolored and stuck up in some odd fashion, akin to a star or crown. His bangs flowed upwards as well, creating the effect of gold lightning cutting a path to his face. His eyes were crimson and he looked at her with equal curiosity and surprise. He obviously remembered her from the rescue and the attack by the defecting Cult. The other was taller, with dark hair and piercing hawk-like eyes that glared at her from beneath the hood of hair that covered his forehead._

"_I am here to teach you how to fight," she told them, sticking the two swords in the ground. "But you both seem to have found a good reason to fight."_

"_He called me a liar," the prince said, glaring at his opponent._

"_You said that you could summon one of the stone monsters, and I know you can't."_

"_CAN! My—"  
"ENOUGH!"_

_Both boys were quiet and obviously scared, but they had officially gotten to the end of her rope. Exactly what was so special about the stone slabs? Priest Akunadin and Advisor Siamon said something about it being evil _ka_, but she had not asked for more, simply said she didn't care. They had been trying to talk to her about it since she had agreed to stay in the palace, and she didn't want to know or care what their monsters could do, or where they came from._

_Or the similarity between her own golden items and the ones the priests carried._

"_I said we were to learn fighting, not arguing! Considering that you _both _are so avid about it, we will begin." She motioned to the two swords behind her. "These are some of the items of basic defense: an edged weapon. Because of the length, size, and various other things, not all of them are the same. But we won't be starting with that. We'll be starting on defending yourself when you don't have a weapon."_

"_Like fists?" the taller one asked._

"_Yes. If you can get past me and both of you get the swords in your hands, we will begin using swords as well. Until then you will have to learn how to fight without a weapon." She looked at them. "If you both are ready…"_

_The two blinked at her, then looked at the swords, and finally each other before both were up and trying to get at her, but pushing the other away to try it._

_She easily sent them back to the ground. Neither one of them stayed down for long, but when they both fell back, exhausted, she walked over and got a basin of water from the servant, the two swords in her hand. She walked back and set the basin down between the two boy's heads._

"_What did you both do wrong?"_

_The prince was the one who answered, "We didn't work together…we fought."  
"And in doing that, you forgot about the common foe."_

_The other boy grimaced and nodded. "I thought I was good enough."_

_She tilted her head at him. "I heard the word for that is 'pride'. It is a very dangerous thing to let in, for it may consume you, or it may simply cause you to underestimate all of your opponents. Consider this today's lesson: even after a fight, even when there is to be a fight, if there is a common foe, that makes even the worst of enemies consider partnerships."_

-o-

She sighed again while she petted Merew. "I don't think he ever remembered any of my teachings on pride'," she muttered almost to  
herself before getting onto the chimera as it took off from the descending ship. She looked back over at the dirigible that was heading away and realized that it was heading back towards London, where she had agreed to meet the man Saim. She shook her head at the  
name, wondering when she considered the look of his face and everything else. No, if he held the Tauk he was more likely a descendant of Isis then of Karim or Shada, unless either decided to marry her. She paused, realize she hadn't found out before leaving who had been left alive and who had died. She knew that Mahaado had died, and her anger at the damned thief always intensified when she thought of him. Had she the chance, she would've torn out all of his insides and forced him to swallow them again before she gouged out his eyes, ripped his head off then pissed down his throat, and tossed the body into the nearest chasm.

Akunadin's history only allowed her to consider, at points, a slightly cleaner death for him. But there always came back to her the memory that Set had been in love, or at least had taken a liking, to the girl who held the White Dragon ka before he did, and that her soul had been the one to break him free of the evil that had taken over the high priest's heart. Akunadin had killed that girl, Kisara, and thus deprived Set of something he had been lacking for a long time: a person to care for besides herself. She held both Set and the Pharaoh in high regard because they had come to be hers.

Not simply her students, or the prince, or suddenly a high priest, but hers. Her…she wasn't sure if there was a word for it, and if there was, she didn't know it. She wanted them to have no problems, to love and live and should it come to a sacrifice, to allow her to  
take it instead.

But instead Set had lost his love, though he gained a beautiful symbol that would constantly remind him of everything. And the Pharaoh had given up his life, and become sealed in a puzzle that was, to most, nearly unsolvable. Unless the right person got it, the puzzle would react and send them into madness.

And within it was her Pharaoh's spirit. Who knew how much he knew of himself, or if he even knew himself…

So she cursed Akunadin and the thief anew as she looked at the dirigible, then blinked when she felt something…a tug.

She held out her hand and the faint outline of the Ring appeared. She remembered she had once helped Mahaado cast to see about the  
recent grave robberies, but…that had been nearly three millennia ago!

Her hand flared out like the points on the Ring, and one finally pointed towards the dirigible. From her lips escaped a name, and she  
blinked when she heard it.

"Jules Verne."

Her arm came back into her own control and she rubbed it, considering. Whoever this Verne man was, he obviously could be important, important enough that the spirit of Mahaado himself, or at least what little was left of the power of Ring, would direct her towards him.

And if he was on that dirigible and heading for England, then it must mean that one of the lucky deities saw fit to smile upon her today.

1-- Egyptian for star'. She calls him this due to the way his hair looks.


	2. The Chariot

Chapter 2: The Chariot

"_Victory—By breaking down obstacles he will defeat his enemies and face the future with daring."—the Egyptian Tarot_

Since the sudden course change as well as the arrival in London, Jules had the oddest feeling, as if something that shouldn't be onboard was there anyway. Despite reassurances from the Foggs, as well as from Passepartout, Jules found himself uncomfortable onboard the Aurora for the first time since…well, for the first time ever. Even when he first met Fogg, he had not found the airship to be uncomfortable, but rather something who's patrons were frightful and abusive. Now, though, he found himself almost at home on the Aurora, and thus anytime he felt uncomfortable in a place that should've felt like home was something he wasn't going to shrug off.

Even if Fogg did. Jules had been more then tempted to bring up that while he had been on the Prometheus and invited the two onboard, Fogg had kept going on about how much he disliked the ship, as well as the odd feeling of 'evil' he was getting from just _being _onboard. While Jules didn't have the feeling of evil, he had the feeling of a person who shouldn't be there, as well as the feeling that, no matter what, this person was going to get what they wanted.

And he almost shuddered at that thought. It was odd, as if he knew this person, whoever they were, was ruthless and cunning. Not like Count Gregory…this was far worse. Far darker, but at the same time with a striking different purpose, one which didn't cause the shivers to erupt quite as quickly but still the shivers were there.

There was the sound of something in the hallway and Jules' head quickly shot up from looking at his writing, seeing only what appeared to be an impossible shadow cross the threshold then disappear. Quiet and wary, Jules slowly stood up and crept towards the door, hating the fact that the Foggs and Passepartout were out for the day. Passepartout was getting groceries and had said he didn't need Jules' assistance, and both Foggs were at social engagements, which Jules didn't want to attend. While he had been comfortable on the Aurora for a second, now that comfort was gone.

Swallowing down his fear, Jules felt his hand shaking as he reached the door and hid behind it, praying that whatever was behind the door wasn't what he might have seen, or thought he had seen, the shadow of.

The sound of footsteps caused him to hold his breath, and the steps stopped just outside of the door. The shadow was that of a person who was slightly tall, but it could've been the light, and either way, he didn't want to find out.

He silently began to pray that they would leave, or something, just ignore the door and his room.

There was no sound from outside as well then he felt, a slight pressure at the door, as if someone was about to open it.

This was bad. If he held it closed…but if he let it open…

"I already know you're in there," a female voice caused him to nearly lose his hold on the door, "I simply want to speak to you."

Jules was shaking and now trying not to.

"I can open this door by force or you can let me in. Either way you can't keep me out of the room. I promise I'm not here to hurt you or your friends. I simply wish to talk."

Jules finally swallowed and opened the door, getting a view of the woman was waiting outside. She had dark hair that fell straight down, but despite her dark hair and slightly tanned skin her eyes were a tawny color that reminded him of a cat he sometimes fed if he had extra food. Her body was slim, and her clothing looked much like his, low-class but useable, though they were men's style. Her face was neutral, as if she was assessing him just as he was looking over her.

"You are Jules Verne?" she asked politely. While there were alarms going off in his mind that she could possibly be dangerous, he nodded all the same.

"I see. Then you might know something about a group I am seeking…the League of Darkness?"

"How do you know them?"

"They have stolen something from others, and the others have asked that I retrieve them. While I have managed to get one, the other two are well-guarded, and I heard that you and your friends are particularly large thorns in the League's side."

Jules wasn't about to deny that, but he didn't exactly understand. If she had one of these things already, why did she need his help?

"Why do you need my help, then?"

She looked at him and sighed, then held out her hand. In it appeared a golden ankh-shaped key that was about as long as from his wrist to his elbow. She held it out to him. "This is one of the items, known as the Millennium Ankh. It has the ability to see into a person's Soul Room."

"Soul Room?"

She smiled at him, though the smile made his blood run cold, and said, "Would you like to see?"

Before he could answer, he suddenly felt the cool metal against his forehead and blinked quickly before there was what sounded like a door unlocking.

-o-

Of the Room she could only get a quick glance before some force, one which she wasn't sure of, pushed her out. The room seemed to be littered with drawings and written ideas, scattered on every available surface, and in the middle, locked on a pedestal, was what was she had to guess was partly the reason for her being kicked out so quickly and not of her own will. 1

She quickly replaced the Ankh so that it was within her, and looked at the boy who was now across the room, in reality. His dark brown hair fell in various curls around his face and his eyes were wide and innocent, but showed a slight world-weary attitude as well, like he had seen some things which helped change his point of view. His clothing was much like hers, and currently he was holding what appeared to be a sharpening tool in his hand.

She sighed as she stood from the place she had ended up kneeling. "Perhaps I should apologize for that. I didn't realize this might be a reason for the Items searching for you."

The boy, Jules Verne, looked confused. "'Searching'?"

"You were onboard this ship when it changed course from the other one."

"Yes, but I didn't see what happened to the ship."

She smiled. "I suppose that might be a good thing, though the deck was far cleaner then the inside." She shrugged, "When I started to leave, I felt a tug from some of the residual magic left over from another Item. It pointed me towards the ship, and gave me your name. I came here with the intent of finding out your purpose and to see what you knew about the League. I didn't lie when I said they had two other Items, and that I've been hired to obtain them."

"Wait…you were on the ship? How did you escape?"

She considered calling Merew, but decided that scaring him wasn't going to be good. "It's…complicated."

The boy looked back to the place where the Ankh was shown to reside. "Then what about those Items? You said something about me being special or them 'searching' for me."

She nodded. "I did. You see, due to…circumstances…you are immune to their power. Because you're immune to their power, you can easily pick them up but, as a side effect, you can't use their power at all."

Jules blinked. "Why not?"

"Because of who you are, and what was inside of your Soul Room. Did you see anything in there that didn't look like it was supposed to be there?"

Jules paused then shook his head. "No. Well…a lock on my journal, but that's it."

It amazed her, but not completely, that this boy wouldn't know about the Book of Knowledge or the fact that it resided within him. It was one of the few Great Books which had, long ago, been lost and were either found within people or simply not found. Perhaps because of it, their knowledge and the powers they granted to their retainers was never compatible with the powers or knowledge from other Great Books.

She considered telling him that it wasn't his journal, but finally said, "That was…partly your journal."

"I think I'd know my journal."

"Hear me out. There are certain Books which are lost, and for reasons. Some are because the magic and power within are evil, some because they are simply forgotten about. During the years of early human history, some of them were written, and just as quickly, they were lost. One of those Books created the Item I used, or was used in its creation. Because of that, and because you hold some of another Book within your Soul Room, you can't use or be affected completely by any of the Items."

Jules was silent for a moment before he asked, "What are the books? Perhaps I've heard of them."

"I doubt it, but I'll say them anyway. The one which created the Items I seek was called the Book of Millennium Magic2. A darker magic book was entitled Al Azif, but is commonly known by the Latin name Necronomicon3. The one you have is the Book of Knowledge. Others are scattered and seem to be from every culture which developed a form of writing, though many are simply lesser forms of the whole Book."

Jules lowered his pen knife and asked, "So if I have it in me, I'm not affected by the Items, but they're affected by me in some way."

"Yes."  
"And you need me to help you find the others that were stolen…the other two, right?"

"Yes."

"And they're being held by the League?"

"As far as I know they're also being held by the Cult of Osiris and someone who once helped guard the tomb of the Pharaoh…why are you pale?"

Jules looked away and finally said, "um…you mean the one that worshiped spiders, right? Because if so…we killed their Queen a few months ago and put the tomb back where it belonged, so they probably don't like us any more then the League does…if any of them are still around."

She blinked and looked at him before saying, "The Queen? Are you telling me you and your friends killed a Spider Queen of that Cult?"

"Yeah…is that bad?"

She smiled even more and shook her head. "No. In fact, that makes me even more convinced that you and your friends should come with me."

-o-

Passepartout was the first to return and be introduced to the odd stranger, who didn't give a name. She didn't pull out the Ankh, as she had with Jules, but when they were alone Jules explained what he could of the situation to Passepartout in French, hoping the woman didn't understand it. The woman was dangerous but not to them, at least not now. Passepartout had nodded in understanding and decided to wait on the Foggs for their decision, as they were better fighters then either Frenchman.

The woman had lounged in a spare room for the time, obviously not caring about any conspiracies that involved getting her off the dirigible. At one point she walked into the main room and simply stated she needed to go and see about someone's arrival before departing. Jules considered moving the Aurora and then apologizing to Fogg later. He wondered if the excuse of "Well, there was this scary woman, who could make items disappear and who was apparently on the Prometheus when it was being attacked, and we don't want her to come back so we moved it in the hopes she wouldn't notice" would be sufficient.

He and Passepartout were about to make the preparations when the woman came back, this time with what appeared to be a scared man with tanned skin, looking like one of the Egyptians who Jules had met during the incident with the Cult of Osiris. The man's eyes were a violet shade and his hair was covered with a hood, but when he uncovered it appeared that it was shaved and that the dark hair was done in the back of his head in a small ponytail. A golden necklace or choker adorned his neck as the only item that seemed to be of value: the man was dressed in light colored clothing that was common in Egypt and the East, making him stick out anywhere else.

"Jules, Passepartout, this is Saim," she told them, motioning to the man, "he's supposed to help me find the other Items I'm seeking."

Saim nodded to the two, seeming to take both in before speaking in what had to be Egyptian to the woman. She said something back and he bowed to her before turning to Passepartout and Jules, "With permission, I will use the room upstairs that the Mi--."  
There was a harsh word from the woman before she walked out and Saim visibly flinched before continuing, "Forgive, I simply wished to use the room she was using."  
Jules nodded and decided that more was needed before saying, "I'll show you the way."

Saim nodded and walked up the stairs with Jules before Jules asked him, "What did she stop you from saying?"

"A title of hers which she gained years ago. I am…not worthy of speaking it…according to her."

Jules' eyes narrowed. "That's stupid."

"She is who she is. She has become…how to say…not happy…with my family and those like me for a very long time."

"Why?"

Saim paused at the doorway and placed a hand on the choker. "I am unsure of how to answer such a question…but you must know that my family served the Pharaohs. We have been watching over a specific place for a long time, awaiting something. She, too, is awaiting that something, but has left because of how angry she can get."

"Her anger made her leave?"

"Her anger at some of the other servants of the Pharaoh. She did not wish to destroy them all, so she left to find her way and to wait." Jules paused and Saim smiled slightly, "I have heard the story and I do not blame her. I myself have become slightly angry at one of the others who was supposed to protect the Pharaoh, but did not. Because of the betrayal, we must involve you and your friends. I am sorry, but…" Saim shrugged a little, "Perhaps this will be for the better…for her, at least."

With that, Saim walked into the room and Jules set about to think of a new excuse for the two visitors.

-o-

_He stood on the threshold, and a large chariot with wings was before him. At the reigns of this were two people, fighting. The Mighty One and a woman he had seen before in a few of his visions, a woman of fiery red hair and piercing eyes. Saim looked to see that he was the only one in the chariot himself: atop the three beasts that had been described as the Mighty One's beasts were the man who was called Jules, atop a great lion with a mane that looked like a star, and when it turned he saw that it had the face of a man, though it looked like no particular one. Atop a griffin with a razor-edged tail was the valet, Passepartout, and atop the one which had saved him was a man with dark hair, graying perhaps prematurely, his face serious as he turned fully, telling the two not to argue. Before them was the shape of Typhon4, the god of evil, cut into five but just as terrifying, and next to him was Zalika, holding aloft the two remaining Secrets._

_The group shielded their faces, and the two women stopped fighting. Instead, both appeared to become the embodiment of the Mighty One, charging the chariot towards Typhon and Zalika._

_---He stood before his brother, his head bowed. Next to him was the Mighty One, and behind her were the others. They spoke and his brother yelled angry words back. Saim looked up and saw the division, saw the Rod and the Tauk to one side, while on the other were the Ankh, the Eye, the Scale, and the Ring, and realized his part, as well as what had to be done, and who had to stay alive._

Saim blinked from the vision that the Tauk had sent him, his head aching, as did his back. He gingerly rubbed the still-healing wounds which his brother had seen fit to give him in the hopes that it would stop him from going after Zalika. It hadn't. The moment he could move, even with pain, Saim had taken the ointment to help heal the wounds, what clothing and money he could, and fled towards America, where the Mighty One was supposed to be.

Saim wondered if she knew of his lie. He had not been sent to reclaim the Secrets: rather, he had been punished for mentioning her help, as well as for not foreseeing the event. His brother, who had passed the trial of the Scales, ruled with the same iron fist their father had, and Saim knew that he could no longer offer to lift the protection of the Pharaoh's tomb for the Mighty One.

Saim's thoughts went to the young man who had spoken to him, Jules Verne. The boy's future was large, he was sure of that, and if what the Mighty One had said was true, then this boy held a chapter or more of the Book of Knowledge. That in and of itself was a great accomplishment!

_And no matter what, Seftut would not have it, _Saim thought sarcastically, _he would rather we make them take a trial for even _hearing rumors _of the Secrets then allow them to leave. Perhaps the Mighty One's presence will calm him…or at least scare him enough to make him reconsider._

Saim was unsure, but he did know that they needed to stay onboard this ship, and they needed the help of those onboard to accomplish what needed to be done.

1—A Soul Room is a place which is only one room (or more, if you have a complicated personality), and reflects a person's wants, desires, and themselves. In the Yugioh manga as well as the anime, the one who possessed the Ankh could enter a person's soul room and look around or change it. Looking gives a person no clue they've been in there. Changing it can either create a 'doll' that obeys the control of the owner. The holder of the Ankh could also have the Soul Room be completely erased, which would destroy a person's personality. The images mentioned are simply items that (I think) would be in Jules' Soul Room. Other Soul Rooms and examples of items inside are:

Yugi—toys on floor, a lot of light in the room (showing how innocent he is)

Yami—a labyrinth to the extent of the one in _Labyrinth_ at the end of the film. It grows more complicated depending on how you feel about your current situation, and behind any door can be a trap or memory, usually a painful one. No one, not even Yami, knows what's behind every door, as they change constantly.

Anzu (Tea)—A ballet/dance studio-room, with a lot of mirrors, and a picture of a mystery man (before she knew about Yami, she heard his voice right before he saved her). Her room reflects how likeable she is and easy to befriend.

As a side note, monsters, especially the early Duel Monsters, were said to reside in the Soul Room of a person, and were what caused them to do evil deeds. During the final arc of the manga and anime, they explain that the monsters are created by evil _ka_ of a person, and thus create monsters. Good _ka _creates gods/spirits which can be used to aid the person if they know how to use it. The only 'exception' to this rule was Thief Bakura's _ka _demon Diabond, and the Blue Eyes White Dragon _ka_.

2—the Book of Millennium Magic is the book which created the Millennium Items in Yugioh. It was written in very early human history, and only partly/completely translated during the reign of Yami Yugi's father (3,000 years ago). The Magic inside is mainly alchemy (which, if you trace the word back, is Arabic for 'al khmet' or, 'of Egypt') and involves human sacrifices to create the gold for the Millennium Items. At the beginning of Chapter 1, the ritual about the 'Ninety-nine' and then the 'nine' to create the items was from the Book of Millennium Magic. As my own side note: the items which Sakhmet has are not the same as the Millennium Items, as they were made later and under different conditions. Because of this, they act and are different from the regular Millennium Items.

3—The Al Azif/Necronomican is a fiction piece of work created by H.P. Lovecraft for many of his Cthulu Mythos. The Al Azif was written by a 'mad Arab' who was later devoured by invisible demons in the middle of the day. While the Al Azif was translated to Latin and later to English, the original writing was lost, and the Latin and English versions are said to be 'corrupted'. Most of the time, the mention of the Necronomicon is when dealing with evil sorcerers who wish to bring in a particularly powerful demon/Elder God, or with the evil itself. There are only a few 'quotes' from the book within some of Lovecraft's literature, but any book that says it's the Necronomican is only based off what Lovecraft wrote (at least in this world).

4—Typhon is depicted as the Devil in my Egyptian Tarot, and supposed to be the Genius of Catastrophes and Evil. In Greek mythology, he is the father of many of the evil animals that Heracles (Hercules) had to defeat, including the Nemean Lion and the Hydra. He is also the father of the Sphinx and of Cerberus. He supposedly tried to attack Olympus but was defeated by Zeus and trapped under a mountain, though he still spits fire and brimstone and such from underneath it. Can you guess who he represents in the vision?


	3. Temperance

Chapter 3: Temperance

"_Initiative—Water dripping drop by drop erodes even the hardest of stone."_

Rebecca Fogg was not in the mood for…well, most things. The mission had not been a good one, mainly involving a quick snatch-and-grab. Simple, but then turning complicated, and finally leading to her getting the information in _just on time_, and instead of enjoying a relaxing return home, they saw one of the Prometheus ships being attacked.

Or so they thought. Passepartout had looked through the spyglass, gasped, than began to steer away from the massive ship and added more power to getting away from said ship. Phileas and Rebecca had protested (Rebecca needed to let off some steam, and Phileas…well, he was Phileas, being a thorn in the League's side was good enough entertainment for him on most days), but then Passepartout had shoved the telescope into Phileas' hands and pointed. Phileas had looked, paled, than went about not protesting as Passepartout tried to get as much speed as he could out of the Aurora.

Rebecca was now curious, and a formerly-angry-now-curious Rebecca was not one to be denied the telescope from an overly-protective cousin.

So as Jules tried to ensure Phileas was okay after she had all but threw him back into the main room and, moving to the outer section of the scaffolding, held her prize to see what there was, she had to admit that her week, in general, had turned worse.

The whole of the deck was littered with corpses, or parts of them, and to one side she saw what appeared to be a lion with wings and a snake for a tail that was snacking on some unfortunate soul. From out of the main room walked a blood-splattered woman, and as the lion-thing lifted its head, Rebecca was almost worried the woman would be the next on the list. Instead, she walked up to it and offered it a _pat on the head._

_Like it was a kitten or something!_

Two other shadows, both with a lion-like form and wings, though one was most certainly large then most lions she had heard about and would never like to encounter, and the other appeared to have the head of a large bird-of-prey, walked up and she turned to them before petting them as well, then looked over.

Rebecca had only caught a glimpse of tawny eyes before lowering the telescope, walking back in, and completely denied Jules the telescope. Lord knew she would have nightmares from that, what about Jules? He had enough of an imagination!

Days later, they were in London, and just to conclude Rebecca's wonderful time, Chattsworth had told her to 'take time off' and that apparently he was too busy with some odd occurrences involving those who had traveled to Egypt on expeditions or who had possible dark connections turning up dead and with a feather as the only proof 1.

Phileas had picked her up after the meeting and listened to her fume, offering a sympathetic ear and also what he knew, or had heard from his trip to his gentlemen's club, about the murders.

"It may be interesting to note," Phileas pointed out, "that most of them came back with items from Egypt, all of which were gone completely from record by the time the dead men were discovered, and those who _hadn't _gone to Egypt were under investigation after the first League incident."

Rebecca was thoughtful, thinking on it, then said, "Chattsworth made mention for us to be watchful as well. He said one of the first deaths not linked to Egypt was actually a prisoner: that woman who ran the Mole machine and who kidnapped Jules."

Phileas frowned at this and said, "So we have someone killing off possible League members as well as those who would've, in a sense, defiled sacred ground. This is like something out of a novel about the savages of America."

Rebecca frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I know of a few which mention how the specific settlers or people were killed horrifically if they 'defiled' the holy ground of the savages, mainly their graveyards and such. Well, considering where most of the items of value in Egypt come from, don't you think the killings, if that was one motivation, would make sense?"

Rebecca finally nodded. "But what about the feather?" she got out of the coach and walked up to the door of the Aurora, "Or the League connection? Most of those men had nothing to do with the League, and yet they were killed anyway."  
The door opened and Phileas stopped speaking before Rebecca turned to see the reason for his silence.

Sitting the main room with Jules were two people whom they didn't know, and one who looked vaguely familiar. The woman had her head down, looking at a map, while the man had turned and stared at the two with wide, violet eyes that seemed to come back into focus only after a moment. Jules looked up and offered a weak smile as explanation for the two strangers onboard the ship.

"Master, Miss Rebecca, you have returned early!" Passepartout said, appearing with a few cups and his tea cart.

"Yes, and we'd like to know who these people are," Phileas said rather rudely, causing the woman to tilt her head in their direction before her shoulders straightened and she cast a look at the wide-eyed man with tanned skin. Rebecca realized he looked Egyptian, and then said, "Jules, what's going on?"

Jules swallowed and said, "Um…it's complicated."

"Uncomplicate it, if you would," Phileas muttered, edging near the swords before the woman, who had not lifted her head at all to look at where they were, spoke.

"'Courageous hero' can be defined as one who gets a good deal of people killed.2 I would hate for that definition to apply here, Mister Fogg."

Both Foggs turned to her as she continued, "I must apologize for my rudeness, however, but I am used to being blunt and flattery or false-anything is not something I was well-schooled in. I and my companion are here to ask for your help in regaining something the League stole from his clan. After that, we will leave quietly and not return."

The Egyptian looked at her and then down to the ground, as if unsure what to say or do in such a situation. Rebecca noticed a shift in his outfit and also saw the now-barely concealed bandages going around his shoulder.

Rebecca cast a look at Phileas, one which said this woman was not one to try and play her bluff (if it was one) before asking, "May we ask what these items are, per se?"

"You may."

…Rebecca was getting less and less in the mood for someone who was cheeky…

The Egyptian, as if sensing this, spoke instead, "They are two items which are of great importance for a tomb that my clan guards. They are supposed to have magical powers and the League wishes to see if they can be used. If the magic is activated, the League will have a very terrible weapon at their hands, but it takes the right kind of person to activate it. We can only hope that they have yet to find that person."

Something seemed to click because Phileas said, "I think we've heard about something like that. You see, a few recent murders have happened around London, all involving those who are supposed League members, and those who have led expeditions into Egyptian tombs. The only way for anyone to tell there is a connection is due to the way they all died, and the fact that a feather was left next to the body."

The Egyptian stiffened, his eyes showing his fear, and Phileas continued, "I take you know something about this?"

"Saim," the woman spoke again, "it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't, does it?" Rebecca said, "They are _our _countrymen--."

"Who vandalized and stole from the Dead," the woman argued back, tilting her head slightly in Rebecca's direction, "I am not to say that they got what they deserved: I myself wouldn't have left enough evidence for them to bury properly had _I _caught them in the Valley of the Dead. But you cannot accuse him of being a murderer when you only have half the facts."

Jules cut in, and seemed to be unnervingly calm about the fact that this woman had all but insulted Rebecca, "Fogg was just wondering if he knew anything, not accusing him of murder. But…well, shouldn't we be concentrating more on finding the location of those items you need, as opposed to fighting?"

"Thank you, Verne," Fogg said, his gaze still on the trembling Saim.

The woman had turned her full gaze to Jules, then sighed and said, "What do you know, Saim?"

Saim lifted a hand to rub his shoulder near a golden choker around his neck, then said, "The feather is the Feather of Ma'at."

The woman paused then cast a look at him, enough that Rebecca now saw her eyes.

They were tawny colored, like a lion's eyes.

_Good Lord…it's the woman!_

What sounded like a very calm but deadly tone, and in a dialect of Egyptian that Rebecca didn't fully understand, came from the woman's mouth and Saim, trembling even more, nodded weakly. The woman's eyes seemed to glow and she let out a small growl of frustration.

Phileas now had a confused look on his face and Rebecca moved next to him. "Phileas," she said, "it's--."

"It's more then just what happened on the Prometheus," he whispered to her, "we should agree to help."

"Phil!"

"Listen to me, Rebecca. I…_understood_…what they said. This is very bad, and it could get worse, a lot worse, then even what might happen if Verne's drawings fall into the hands of the League."

Rebecca was taken aback by this. Worse then that even? The last few times anything of Jules' had gotten in League hands, nothing good had come of it, especially from the Mole machine or from Jules' quick if not entirely unexpected joining of the League (with or without him fully knowing it).

Rebecca cast him a look which said she wanted the fully story later, and from the looks of Jules and Passepartout, so did they.

The woman and Saim gave them the opportunity as she pointed and Saim nodded. The woman stood and now turned to fully face Rebecca.

It surprised Rebecca how young the woman's face looked. If her eyes had not been so harsh and unyielding, anyone could easily mistake this woman for anywhere from fifteen to twenty. Her hair was black and fell down a little ways past her shoulders and straight, much like some of the drawings alone a tomb wall, and her skin was paler then Saim's, more like that of one from the Mediterranean then Egypt. Her outfit was not there to flatter anyone, but rather for practicality, and a small item, which looked like a crude hilt to a sword, was hanging from her belt.

Her eyes, though, reminded Rebecca of a lion's eyes, or that of a cat who was not about to let you or anyone else near it.

"If you will excuse me, I must speak with Saim in private," the woman said, and without waiting for any response, walked away, Saim close behind and with the obvious stance of one who was about to be executed.

Rebecca's week was _not _going well.

-o-

"Your brother owns the Scales?"

Saim nodded, and she wished that the gods had not given her such a problem as one who ran away from his own clan to fix the problem. After getting into the room and away from the others, she had all but demanded an answer from Saim, and even without a harsh tone, or at least one she would've had to pull out for Set, he had told her everything.

His brother had forbidden him to get her help on this, as it appeared the priests, or at least _someone, _had passed down upon each generation a type of anger because she had left. She didn't understand it: when she left, Egypt had been at its height, the only other countries to rival it being Mesopotamia, Nubia, and a few others, but none wished to, mainly due to the Shadow Games which were still played, even after the catastrophe that had taken away her sebah and many of the priests. She sat down and remembered that she had met some of the priests once, when she had rescued one of the princes and his servant from some of the more rowdier parts of a city she had been living in. She hadn't known this was the prince until she had seen Mana awaiting the two. She had looked up, the Millennium Ring hanging from a rope around her neck, and gasped at the sight of her. Mana had even called her by her true name, and she remembered Mana smiling and thanking her for the return of the prince.

_--"I am still a servant to my Pharaoh. If this one is one who will succeed him, then it is best to keep him and his friend out of harm's way."—_

After that, Mana had somehow found her location and sent messages of the young Prince's progress as well as about the boy who had been with them. The boy had been chosen by the Rod and was to be the next Head Priest, and the boy himself was almost if not just as talented at the Shadow Games as her sebah, though the monsters he often chose were from elements and the Gods were never awakened by him. 3 Set had become a good Pharaoh, but the darkness that had taken over still haunted him at times, despite the companionship of his symbol of light, the White Dragon.

All the others had died but Mana. Mana had inherited the Ring…and life had gone on.

"Saim, do you think he has found the location of the other Secrets?" she asked, her mind drifting back into the present as well as the slight shock of seeing a face she had not remembered until looking up.

"I doubt it," Saim answered, "I was only able to find their location by using, or begging, the Tauk, but he has no such way. Only the Scales answer to him, and as it is--."

"I understand," she told him, sighing. This would be troublesome: the location of the last two was a good two-days outside of London, in the countryside. She was sure that the Foggs would know of the place, and while it appeared they agreed to let them stay for the moment, she was sure that one wrong word said or one thing done wrong and they would be threatened.

She did not want to kill those close to Jules, but she also did not take well to threats. For them, she would give a warning, at least, but only one.

They seemed smart enough, they would stop at one.

But that would be hard for her, if her memory overtook her again.

_Brother…so you were reborn here, and in a way that is different from what I remember of you. But he is older then you were…_

_If this is true of my brother, whose soul is supposedly locked within my own Items, then will my _sebah _be reborn as well? _

_How much longer will fate keep him from me?_

"We must tell them what we can, and leave as quickly as we can. I fear your brother's decision to punish people will only serve to keep us from the Secrets."

Saim nodded and started to move when he paused and a brief look of pain came over his features. She looked at him then said, "What happened?"

"It is…" her look made him stop before he could start his lie, and he said, "I must show you for you to understand."

-o-

"You understood them, Fogg?" Verne asked, the group over in one corner, the furthest from where the two slight-intruders had gone to.

"I did say that, didn't I Verne? It's odd…the moment I heard it, I understood what they were saying, as clearly as I would if they were speaking English…"

Rebecca frowned, "What were they talking about, if I may ask?"

Phileas frowned and thought of the words as well as how the woman seemed to word them, as well as how the man responded.

"So?"

Phileas sighed. "After he said that it was the feather of Ma'at that was what we were talking about, she asked him if that meant that someone he knew had the Sacred Scales. He answered that it was his older brother, and from his tone, this brother does not seem the nicest of men."

Rebecca frowned. "What does that have to do with how serious things are?"

Phileas struggled with how to answer that. "I have…heard, from an old poker-partner of mine about something known as the 'Seven Secrets' or 'Sacred Items of a Thousand Years'4. One was Scales, which could balance out the heart of a man while he was still alive, and send him to be devoured by Ammut…that demon of the Egyptian underworld…before they died."

"It seems odd," Verne pointed out, then asked, "What about an Ankh?"

The two Foggs looked at him and Verne explained, "She made an Ankh appear, and used it to see into my…she called it a 'Soul Room'. She didn't go into it, but I think it's pretty powerful. She said that I'm immune to it, though."

"Thank God for small favors," Phileas muttered then nodded, "Yes, he mentioned them all. He said if anyone was to find even one of those items, they never lived to tell about it, or if they did, it was right before they died."

"Oh dear," Rebecca said, looking back. "And she has one of them? She said two more were missing, and the League had them."

The group was silent for a moment before Verne said, "I want to help her. There's more to this story then what she's willing to tell, and I want to find out what it is."

Phileas nodded. "This whole thing doesn't reek, but it's obvious there's more to our guests then we suspected."

Passepartout nodded as well, and Rebecca sighed. "I'm saying we should be cautious. We don't know--."

"_What in the white sands belonging to Seth was your brother thinking?_"

The group turned and Phileas blinked as he heard that. It sounded like a curse, and he had to guess it was.

There was a muted, unheard reply as the group now headed for the stairways.

"_By all the vermin who feast on the Dead, and by the damned Thief Bakura and his damned village, he is an idiot! Did the priests go mad after the death of--._" There was a pause, then more muted talking, none of which Phileas could make out.

_So it appears the brother is not the smartest of all men, at least by this woman's thoughts on the matter. I wonder…what does that mean for him when we finally encounter him?_

Phileas had to guess it was nothing good.

The group looked at Phileas and he said, "Just because I understand doesn't mean…"

"Phil!" "Fogg!" "Master…"

He hated being a translator…"She asked…what the devil his brother had been thinking about something. I couldn't hear his reply, but hers was that his brother was an idiot and something about all the priest going mad after the death of someone. She didn't mention them, though. After that, they began speaking as they are now, and I can't make out the words."

The group seemed satisfied with that, and Jules cast another look in the direction of the spare room. "I wonder what she saw that caused her to yell like that. She doesn't seem like someone to do that."

Phileas frowned and nodded, an odd thought/memory in his head.

--"_Look, brother, look!" the girl with tawny eyes smiled up at him, holding a small knife their father had fashioned. He grinned at her, walking over to ruffle her hair, "Very good—"—_

"No," he said, "she doesn't."

-o-

She had stood quickly and now cursed herself for losing her temper. Saim had, if possible, become even more quiet then before as she told him to lay down and she slowly looked over the wounds before applying a little of the healing ointment he had brought and tried to hide from her.

The carvings in his back, for that was all she could see them as, wrote of the three Gods and how they could unlock the Pharaoh's memory. She knew enough to read, but not to write. Her sebah and the boy with him had been surprised when she had told them, after a lesson with the sword and knife before them trying as a team to get at some other weapon (they never did reach it, she remembered that much), that she couldn't read. With that, her sebah had introduced her to his other friends in the temple: a magician named Mahaado and his very young student, Mana. Mana had been hiding at the time, and had sprung out to try and hug her sebah, but she had caught the small and nimble girl mid-air. Mana had complained how unfair it was, as she was Sakhmet and could catch anything, and she had taken a liking to the apprentice girl who was so carefree. It had also turned into a game, Mana popping out to attach herself to her sebah and seeing if she could evade the older woman if she happened to be there.

Mahaado, though, was very serious. He hardly played, devoting himself to studies and to use of his magic and understanding more. He had taught her in a matter-of-fact way how to read the writing, heretic and the divine one used by many of the priests, while her sebah, Mana, and the other had helped her, so that their breaks now included the boys practicing writing while seeing if she could read what they wrote.

But this…

She gently rubbed the ointment in and tilted her head. "Where did he get this?"

"from a wall along the tomb at Kul Eruna," Saim answered, "this is supposed to be tied to the magic of the sealed stone that the Pharaoh after the Nameless Pharaoh created."

_My other…who became Pharaoh after my sebah…and who fathered that boy that I met so long ago, thinking I was free of Khmet. After that, after speaking to Mana, after hearing of what the new Pharaoh knew, I began to search for my sebah. Now I am here, and I find my brother instead._

Her heart hurt at the thought.

It had hurt only a few times since she gained her own Items. Once was when she couldn't find the other, having been sent away. She and Akunadin were frantic until her newer monster, Menw5, the griffin which had gone after him and brought him back, alive but only barely. Then it had hurt when she witnessed her other, possessed by evil, fighting her sebah, and with all the intent of killing him when the world around them crumbled. She had fought the evil, and was badly wounded.

Then her sebah had sacrificed himself, and not her, to seal away the evil, and his pendant had broken into a thousand pieces, taking him away from her…

"It speaks of how my Pharaoh can regain his memory, should it be lost, and battle the evil also trapped within the Puzzle," she told him. "This is a punishment?"

"Yes. There are few others who have received this, and they are said to guard the tomb where the stone tablet is."

"…I see." She looked to the door and sighed. "I am sorry if I was the cause of this."

His head turned and he move up slightly, wincing painfully as he did to look at her with determined eyes. "No, Mi—no, it was not your fault! My sister, she is the one who stole the Secrets, and I am the one who mentioned your name! My brother was the one to put these onto my back! _He _is the one to blame…my sister is the one to blame…but not you."

She looked at him, surprised at him for being so bold. Where had he turned determined, had changed from the timid man she had growled at in America a few weeks ago?

_The Tauk changed Isis too…she was timid, and often soft-spoken, but her duty as the soothsayer of the court made her important. She knew this…and she and I were the only women among the men who protected my sebah. Mana was still learning, but she was a great woman when I met her again._

"Saim," she touched his shoulder, gently pushing him back down. She paused and considered her words. "I am going to tell the group where we must go. I will see how quickly we can retrieve the Secrets. And then we will have a word with your brother."

Her tone left nothing to the imagination at how this 'word' might turn out should his brother protest anything.

-o-

Rebecca wandered downstairs, sitting at the main room and looked up as the woman walked down as well. It seemed she wasn't the only one to not be able to sleep.

"I take it the men are asleep," the woman said, giving her a small smile before motioning, "May I sit?"

Rebecca nodded, drinking some of the tea she had made for herself in the hopes it would let her sleep. She set down the cup and looked at her. "What caused you to take up this life?"

The woman looked at her and then down. "That is a question with a very long answer."

"Should I answer for myself first?"

"If you wish to. I cannot say that my own answer will make anymore sense to you then your answer may make to me."

Rebecca smiled at this woman, a fellow Athena in a world of men, then leaned back to say, "Phileas and I are cousins. I lived with him for a very long time, and even after being introduced to society, I was never a very good lady, or at least one to stay still. Phil and his brother were in the Service, and I wanted to join. It took a good deal of arguments and pleas to my uncle, Phileas' father, before I was allowed in. Phileas protested, but this was…well, because we had lost Erasmus to his work in the Service. He didn't want to lose me like that. He had even quit after that, and he and Uncle Boniface never spoke after that."

The woman sighed. "Men can be like that. Sometimes the father do what they think is proper and good for their sons, but it backfires. Their wishes do not always come true, or if they do, it is after their deaths."

Rebecca looked at her and she said, "I knew such a pair…one I trained to be a fighter. He and…and my sebah…were close, at least when it came for rivals. They were always trying to outdo each other, it was rather entertaining to watch should a new contest come up. Shortly after I met them, I swore I would protect them. They were…they are…mine. I have no other word for it."

"I understand how that is," Rebecca said with a smile, "they aren't children, nor are they lovers, but they simply are, and you will do what you can to protect them, no matter what the cost. Jules is much like that for me…he is mine, more then a friend, but not a brother or anything. Simply someone I would want to protect." She paused then said, "What happened to them?"

"One died, and the other took his place as Pharaoh," she told her, "and I left."

"Why?"

"A lower priest defaced the name of my sebah. His name is lost in time, much like his spirit, and I became angry at this. The other wished for me to stay, to help put the name back, but upon realizing only I and maybe one other remembered it, he sent me away. He said for me to remember the name, and what had really happened, so that should I meet him along the way, then perhaps I can remind him."

The woman stopped and sighed. "It's been so long…I feel fate is playing a cruel joke on me. I have run into the children of my other, and they showed so much promise. I have—I have seen too much, and lost too much, that at times I wonder if I will ever see my sebah again."

Rebecca looked at the woman and realized just how vulnerable this girl could be. Even looking young, she was still a child. This girl had seen everything, perhaps (_she said he was a Pharaoh, but the last Pharaoh was maybe a few thousand years ago!_) more then what human history knew, and all of what she had gone through was to see the face of her 'sebah' again.

Rebecca realized if anyone took away Phileas, or Jules, then she would have gladly done the same thing this woman is doing, with no reservations towards any damnation she had to endure, to see them again.

Rebecca finally asked, "So what is your name?"

The woman raised her face and smiled. "You wouldn't be able to pronounce it right."

"Perhaps, but I may be able to help you gain a new one. Everyone needs a name, don't they? I have one, and it makes me unique."

"Your name was given to you when you were born; all other names I go by I obtained through my years before I served my sebah and the other."

"Tell me."

The woman looked at her, then asked, "Why?"

"Because I am curious, because we are telling each other things we would not admit to the men onboard unless they were about to die, because we are both women who fight for those who are ours, and because I know you want to tell me." Rebecca paused then held out her hand. "I am Rebecca Fogg."

"That is not your full name."

"No, but that is what I go by. I have a rather long full name."

"I see," the woman smiled at her, then took the hand and spoke her name.

"…that is a rather complicated name."  
"You should hear what it means."

"Maybe not. And what is it that the man…Saim, was it?...wanted to call you?"

"Mighty One. It is a title I gained after people began calling me Sakhmet."

Rebecca frowned then told her, "I'm not too sure about that name either."

"Sakhmet is a goddess who was created when humanity was being wicked. She was sent as a great lioness to destroy the wicked, but became so enthralled by killing that she continued to kill, despite the protests of the great Ra. He finally told humanity how to make a beer that was the color of blood, and after she drank it, forgot herself as well as what she had been doing."

"Don't like beer?"

"I find it soothing, but it will get me drunk a little quicker then most other liquors. I still prefer it to them, though."

"I see…well, I can't call you 'Mighty One' or 'Sakhmet' anymore then you could call me 'Athena' or 'Lady Spy'." Rebecca leaned back, then took another sip of her tea. "So you need a new name to go with this day, so you can blend in."  
"I blend in well enough."

"How so?"

"I don't let people notice me, and I stay out of their affairs unless I must go into them."

Rebecca got thoughtful at the answer. "A good point."

"But you are still going to try and find me a name."

"Oh, I'm going to put a good deal of thought into it, too," Rebecca told her with a smile, "It must be a name that fits you, one which suits your personality and such."

The woman sighed. "I never should've entered this conversation."

"But you did. Regrets never turn back time."

"I know," the woman sighed, this time sadder, and Rebecca frowned.

"Sorry."

"I didn't tell you the fullness of everything."

"Neither did I. Shall we? It may take all night, but there is a good amount of tea, and we may even be able to find something to eat."

The woman gave her a small smile, but it seemed to lit her whole face, as it was not the same as before. This one was something that showed she had, almost unknowingly, made a friend. "Are you sure we should stay up all night?"

"No, but I can't get to sleep, and it appears you can't either. Besides, we can get a quick nap in along the way, can't we?"

Rebecca gave her much the same smile, and the woman finally nodded.

Rebecca then realized that this woman simply wanted someone to speak to, and had found it. While she could've used this to gain more information about everything, instead they simply traded stories on the two whom they had claimed as 'theirs' and their pigheaded natures.

1—The feather I explained later, but from the Yugioh manga (the first series), when Shadi, who used the Scales, had a small feather in his turban and, when he judged a corrupt museum manager, after killing him off left the feather behind, which was the only evidence that it might have been foul play instead of a heart attack.

2— If you've seen the movie 'Serenity' you will recognize my play on this quote. I had to…not really, but hey…

3—I'm becoming a Yugioh GX fan, and in the second episode, one of the new characters mentioned that it could've been like the main character was the Pharaoh and he was his High Priest. I decided that was a good idea. The thing about 'elements' is that the main character uses a type of monster called 'Elemental Heroes', which all have specific types of elements. He also used that particular deck to defeat Yugi's deck in one episode (though someone else was using it, so I have to guess that if Yugi was using it, he might've had a harder time).

4— The original (Japanese) name for the Millennium Items was "Sennen Items". "Sennen" translates roughly to "thousand", which was how long peace was supposed to last after their creation.

5—Egyptian for 'monument'. (She sees her 'other' as unyielding and unmoving as a monument or obelisk)


	4. The Magician

Chapter 4: The Magician

"_Will—He is the magician, the perfect man, willpower ready to go into action"—the Egyptian Tarot_

Sleep brought a rather odd dream, and while Jules was used to such odd dreams, this one involved the hot sands of Egypt and seemed to intrude into other's dreams as well. He wasn't used to that, but he couldn't stop the direction of such dreams.

And the one directing these dreams seemed to be a man dressed in purple robes and with a tall purple hat, as well as a tall staff of green with an odd orb in it.

"Who are you?" Jules asked, trying to get the man's attention as they walked down the long hallways.

The man, at first, gave no answer, instead walking up with Jules following after him in the hopes of finding the answer. He saw, as he passed, a good deal of large stone slabs with what appeared to be monsters in them.

"Where are we?"

There was the sound of a battle ahead of them and Jules paused before the man before him spoke.

"_She and I both lived to protect him."_

"What?"  
The man turned, and he now saw a man with piercing blue eyes, ones which seemed to be searching Jules' very soul, before the voice once more echoed in the hallway and in Jules' mind. "_We both failed to save him from the fate given to him. We have both cursed fate a thousand times over, but neither of us have come close to finding him. But through you and those with you...there is a chance."_

"What do you mean? Who are you? Tell me!"

The man tilted his head at him and the ghost of a smile passed over his face. "_I was called the Magnus of Illusions 1. Before that, I had a human name, but I have long discarded it in the hopes of serving my Pharaoh again."_

"Your Pharaoh?"

"_Sakhmet also served him with me, but she has been able to wander this world and search for him, as I have not. I am only here, in the world between yours and any others. Your connection allows me to speak to you."_

"Okay...but—what happened? Can you tell me what happened?"

The man finally nodded. "_I can show you a little...but not a lot. I am sorry...but it is all I have."_

Jules gave a small smile. "I'll take what I can."

-o-

The air was hot, and as Jules watched from his place, he saw a man be dragged in and judged for a crime. A 'low-level' demon was withdrawn from the man and he was sentenced to hard labor for the crime of trying to pillage a tomb. He watched as the Pharaoh seemed to look a little off about something and the one who was dressed differently then the others, one with blue and what appeared to be an ankh across his chest, turned to one other one, one with a ring or something around his neck, and asked why he and Sakhmet hadn't noticed these rises in pillagers.

"They've gotten more confident, thinking I'm caged here," the woman he recognized as the one who came into the Aurora told him, "No need to get all angry, Seto. Such things will happen to the desperate and despite their attempts, all of them are caught."

The man himself looked down and said, "The Millennium Ring has been giving me erratic aurugies recently. Even though I've asked Sakhmet to help out, we have yet to determine anything except that the number of _ka _in people have grown, so that we can no longer detect every sinner and every evil intention."

The woman called Sakhmet cast a look at the man, as if she was going to say something about the way he spoke to the Seto man before the man with the odd Ring knelt before the Pharaoh and said, "Great Pharaoh, I request permission to enlist more troops so that we may strengthen the guard in the Valley of the Kings."

The Pharaoh turned to face him and said, "I leave it to you."

Nearby, a woman, the only one there, lowered her head and there was a flash of gold. Jules realized that around her neck was the same item that Saim wore. The oldest of the priests asked, "What is it, Isis?"

"The Millennium Tauk has shown me a...disturbing future," she told them, her voice shaky. Sakhmet tensed, as did the others, as she finished, "An evil shadow approaches the palace...one with incredible powers of magic!"

"What?"

Jules looked over to see someone walk in, a mummy dragged behind him by a rope and pieces of gold adorning him.

He said that he was there to take the Millennium Items...

The scene abruptly changed, and Jules looked over at the Magnus of Illusions. "What was that?"

"_The beginning of the end...the starting of everything."_

"What everything?"

He watched as the man with the Ring, leading a procession, started out of the capitol. Nearby, Sakhmet looked at him. "You shouldn't have to leave."  
"It was because of me that the old Pharaoh's tomb was desecrated. I should be thankful I am not punished for my failure."

She gave him a soft glare. "You know he would never do that, Mahaado. He cares for you too much."

Mahaado looked at her, surprised, and she finally gave him a simple smile. "You'd better come back. I won't forgive you if you don't."

The procession continued out, Mahaado stopping only to chastise a young girl who appeared to be a student of his, but then it continued out.

The scene continued after the procession, and then they went into the darkness of a tomb and its traps. He was down in the tomb...to trap the thief.

"Neither of us are leaving this tomb alive."

Then Jules realized it.

"Then Mahaado...is you?"

There was a pendulum swing, and the Ring went flying, but the monster he had called stayed, the face appearing before it hit the rival monster, and then Bakura went flying--

-o-

"_But he lived..._"

Sakhmet standing next to the Pharaoh, before them the Magnus of Illusions, and she growled, more feral then before. Three monsters were before her as well, monsters that were mainly lion in form, all of them glowing as well. One of her arms had a trail of blood down one side and looked like it should be attended to, instead of her fighting. The dark gold outline of a tattoo was on one side, and the main glow came from the odd eye-like thing which seemed to adorn most of the Millennium Items. Around them, ghosts flew but seemed scared away by something else from the girl, and because of the Dark Magician.

"I will not allow you to hurt him anymore!" she yelled, attacking.

"Wait!" the man who seemed to be the Pharaoh yelled in alarm, but it didn't stop the woman at all, or slow her down.

The large monster which the thief had from the last time had grown it seemed, and was currently holding a large pillar that had nearly fallen on a stone slab with seven holes, shaped oddly and looking like some of the items that Jules had seen. The monster started to defend itself before both it and his master realized the girl's true target.

It was the controller. It was the thief himself.

The large monster tried to go after the girl, but one of the larger lion-monsters, one with a mane much like the Pharaoh's hair, turned and roared, attacking it and making it go back. A snake tail went after them as well, though hindered by the weight it held while another one, one that looked like a griffin of old, hissed and attacked with a viper-quick tail that was more a knife then anything, hitting the snake before the griffin itself pounced, the beak grabbing at where the neck would be for the snake. Some of the ghosts were trying to surround the monster but to no avail, as they were driven off by the last monster, a lion with a man's face, and the odd ghosts that surrounded the girl as well. The thief seemed to be in pain as he looked over and saw a long sword appear, jagged edged and deadly, as the woman let out her own roar and went for the thief.

-o-

"Wait!" Jules said as the vision dimmed and they were back in the hallway leading to the sounds of fighting, "What happened? She didn't win...did she?"

"_In a way, yes...the thief was killed. However, another evil came up, this one controlling one who was trusted of her."_

Jules turned as he saw the girl, bloody and barely standing, limping towards the sounds.

"What happened?"

"_Her heart was broken, just as her body was, from the sight which is to come."_

Jules looked over and followed her to see the tall man, Seto, fighting the Pharaoh with a large white dragon that seemed to glow blue as well. Around him was a dark power and the woman blinked. "No...Seto! WAKE UP!"

A sudden dark energy rushed towards her and she shielded herself briefly, a small glow appearing around her but not much. "No...I won't let this happen...Akunadin! Let him go! If you ever cared for him at all, LET HIM GO! STOP THIS, NOW!"

She had made in some progress, and now both fighters looked at her before the dark energy once more went after her. She could only shield it partly before she was thrown harshly against the wall and slumped forward.

"No!" the Pharaoh yelled, then turned back to Seto, "Wake up, damn it!"

"I _will _be Pharaoh!"

"You're being controlled!"

The large white beast that was over him suddenly lent out cry, and Seto's eyes widened, his whole body shaking as if he realized what was going on and what exactly he was doing.

"**_No...I will not let him go!_**"

The Pharaoh looked at Seto, then said, "Then I will let your dream come true...but I can't allow either of us to witness it..."

The woman stirred, then blinked as Jules and the ghost of the Magnus of Illusions saw the Pharaoh begin to chant, the darkness seeping from Seto into the upside-down pyramid which the Pharaoh had hanging around his neck.

"**_What are you doing? No! I won't let you win! You will be trapped as well! You will have no way of going to the world of the Dead! I will see you die before the end of this, and myself awaken once more to cover the world in darkness!_**"

The Pharaoh gave a sad smile as the woman reached for him, "Sebah...what..."

The Pendant, as well as the Pharaoh's body, seemed to crack, lines going along the Pendant and cutting into the Pharaoh, causing blood to seep down as they seemed to destroy his body as they were destroying the Pendant, but all this time he kept his eyes on Seto and the woman.

"Seto," he said, his voice showing none of the pain he must have been in, "I name you Pharaoh in my stead. Watch over the kingdom for me..."

His body disappeared in a sea of red, and the Pendant shattered into one complex puzzle as it hit the ground.

The wail from the woman was nearly unbearable.

Seto looked in shock at the place where the pieces of the Puzzle had fallen, and the woman's eyes seemed blank. "me...I am the one to take such a punishment. Not you...never you...either of you...my sebah...why? Why didn't you let me take that punishment?"

-o-

Jules sat down on a ruined pillar and then looked over at the Magnus. "So she's waiting for him to return?"

"_Our Pharaoh's soul is trapped within the Puzzle. However, the guards of the tomb allow no one in, and as such, no one has had a chance to try and complete the Puzzle. If they did, then they may attain the Pharaoh's soul, however it is his memory which is an issue._"

"His memory?"

"_He lost his body, and thus he lost his memory. While the Gods of Egypt are supposed to help him unlock those memories, the shrine where many of the monsters were kept, as well as the secrets to unleashing them, have been lost to time._"

Jules sighed as he considered this, "Then...she's been alive all that time...waiting for him?"

"_She and I both await him, though in different ways. I cannot tell the passing of time from the realm I am in, but she can, and thus her heart is hurting for it. But she has vowed to see him again, and in doing so take any 'punishment' which would cause her to lose him again. She is very much a mother lion who will fight even the leader of her pride in order to protect that which is hers."_

Jules stood and then asked, "Do you know why she left, though?"

"_I do not. When the Pharaoh died, I lost the only one who I would allow to summon me...except for one. She gained one of the Millennium Items and only called me for wisdom, but I never asked her of what happened with the new Pharaoh nor did I ask for anything beyond speaking to her. It kept me peaceful, until the time of her death and when she, herself, entered this realm as her own soul and as my apprentice._"

Jules gave a small smile. "I see...I guess...I'm sorry, for what happened."

"_I had to tell you. You are one closest to our realm, though your connection is to another through one of the Great Books. I am amazed that you hold so much of the book as well...normally one only has a small piece or even a chapter of that Book; you have much more._"

"Thanks...I think."

The Magnus gave another ghost of a smile. Jules looked over to where he had to guess was the path leading back to the waking world. "Do you think she'll find him again?"

"_I believe we both will, and we will both continue to serve him however we can._"

Jules smiled. "That's good. I'd be glad to see her find him...but I guess it's too much to ask. Still...as long as she finds him, I'll be happy for her."

-o-

Jules rubbed his neck as he walked down, seeing Saim exit his own room and give Jules a slight smile. "You look tired, Mister Verne. Did you have a good sleep?"

"Kinda...a little odd though."

Saim nodded. "Such thing occur when dealing with Millennium Items."

The two walked down to see Rebecca and the woman sitting nearby, Phileas already up and looking at the map which one of them must have pulled out, a section marked off.

Jules looked over there while Saim looked at it and then at the woman. Remembering the dream, Jules couldn't completely keep eye contact, instead taking a seat and starting to design an odd contraption that seemed to be for a card game of sorts and which fit on the arm or wrist...2

"So they're keeping them both in one location?" Phileas asked, "Whatever for?"

Saim said in his halted English, "They wish to put many through the test for them. There will not be many people left then..."

Rebecca looked over at him and asked, "Why not?"

"Those who do not pass the trial have are burned within...their souls are destroyed, and thus their bodies."

Phileas frowned and Jules felt himself shudder before asking, "But then...how are we going to get them? I mean...is Saim going to be the one to grab him or not?"

"Actually," the woman said, "you are."  
"Me?" "Hold on a second—" "I'm not allowing you to pu—"

Both of the woman's hands slammed onto the table as she stood. "QUIET!"

Silence filled the cabin, more from surprise then anything else. Her eyes were closed and she said, "Jules is the only one who can not only hold the Items but not be affected by them at all. That is what drew me to him and that is what will help us regain them."

The group looked at her and Phileas was the first to speak. "How can you be so sure?"

"I checked, with this," she held up a hand and the Millennium Ankh appeared, causing Jules to back up only slightly as she explained, "This Item holds the power to see into one's very soul. When I tried to with Jules, the inlaid power he has within himself kicked me out, and negated the power of this Item. He can hold the Items safely, but not use them. If anyone else tried, they would be bonded to that Item forever, or would be killed. Do you honestly think I would throw him into danger of this magnitude?"

Phileas and Rebecca frowned, both eyes locked on the Ankh as well as on the woman. Jules had a feeling that all of them had, in their own way, learned of this woman's past and of her reasoning behind doing what she did.

The Ankh disappeared and the group once more turned back to planning the attack.

1—The 'Magnus of Illusions' is also known as the 'Dark Magician', which is one of Yugi's signature cards. It seems to appear whenever Yugi needs it and, more importantly, shows off the most emotion and free will of any card monster. An example of this is during a duel with a man named Pandora. Yugi's Dark Magician was trapped and unable to attack or defend. Pandora played a card called 'Ectoplasm', which extracts the 'soul' of a monster and attacks the player directly with half the attack points of the monster. When Pandora sacrificed his Dark Magician to 'finish' Yugi, Yugi's Dark Magician, on his own will, became Ectoplasm to protect Yugi from the blast. During the Millennium World arc (called 'Dawn of the Duel' for anime), you find out he was once a member of the court and vowed to protect the Pharaoh however he could, even after death.

He's really loyal, if you didn't figure it out, and I like his character so I added him in.

2—During the manga and anime Yugioh, to create life-like monsters, Kaiba creates a Duel Disk, which projects holograms of the cards you play to a field. Jules is drawing an earlier type of it, or at least a quick sketch. I had to...kinda...


	5. The Moon

Chapter 5: The Moon

"_Disappointment—False security in no way protects one from hidden danger."—The Egyptian Tarot_

She had not been fully truthful with Rebecca, but didn't care that she wasn't. The reason she had not been asleep was because of the fact that she had dreams of the place between life and death, at times anyway, and while there, she saw her sebah...wandering...

It broke her heart, each night, to see him like that, wandering, his cloak torn from the years, his sandals stained with the mud and water of the river he could not cross. The first night out of Egypt she had such a dream and awoke to the sound of her own yell.

Her sebah had spoken to her, telling her that until what was left of his soul remembered his name, then he would walk this way. She had offered her items, her powers, her very soul, if it would give him peace. Instead, he had taken her and hugged her, then said his instruction to her.

"_Live for me, that I may see you again in the living world."_

Each time, she walked with him along the side, seeing the golden world beyond, and hated that she had never found a way for him to cross, and he never let her.

Where was the person to solve the Puzzle, and free the memories of her sebah? She had waited 3000 years...was that not enough?

The group was preparing, Jules and Phileas doing some training with fencing, so that Jules had a general idea of how to defend himself with a sword just in case. She personally didn't believe it would come down to that: her plan was to have the Foggs follow after him and stay that way, not breaking from him, and protecting him as they could. Passepartout would have to wait and defend the Aurora for the time being. Saim had insisted and thus would follow one of the groups, in the hopes of finding and confronting his sister.

She watched the failed attempt by Jules which sent him near her and nearly spilt her drink. She sighed and placed it down before standing up and quickly taking the small pad that Jules had been writing with. He looked over at her as she also pulled out another rapier and, with a quick flick and move to test it, looked over at Phileas. "If you don't mind...I'd like to try and teach him something."

Phileas looked at her like she was insane, and she said, "I had to train others before. I never hurt them too badly that they couldn't do the same thing the next day, so please don't worry about him."

Phileas lowered his own rapier and moved away while she walked over to Jules and held a starting stance. "Try this."

He did, and she smiled before saying, "What has he taught you already?"

Jules quickly explained what he did, as well as how he knew to take away an opponents weapon if need be. She nodded and then walked over to place his sketchbook to one side, then took her own stance. "If you can get past me, then I'll let you have your book back."

"What?"

"I'll train you, and if you are able to get past me with what you learn and know, then you can have the book back. Ready?"

Jules frowned, then nodded and took his own stance.

She had to admit, she was happy that she wasn't as good with fencing as with just general fighting. There was no point to such an art! At least in her mind...the swords of old were always her favorite; fencing now was just a way to know that you could wield a light-weight sword.

They did a quick round, then Jules pulled back. She frowned at this but said nothing until the second round ended like that, and instead she used the rapier to hit him against his leg. He winced and she said, "Don't leave an opening when retreating. If this is real and they are good, they'll try to cut your leg out from under you."

Jules didn't make the mistake again, which she had to admit she was proud of, and actually got past her in the fourth round to grab his book. She gave him a warm smile. "That's very good. I'm not as good as Fogg when it comes to this, but I am tough, I've heard."

Phileas nodded. "I must admit, you are a good teacher as well."

"Only in combat," she told them, going back to sit down and finish her now-cooled tea, "I'm terrible at teaching anything else."

Saim smiled at her and she gave him a small smile back before she realized it.

They were in her heart...already...

Already, they had worked their way into her heart, into being her friends. She wanted nothing bad to happen to them, noting that might make her lose them as well. She wanted to break her promise and stay with them, stay to protect them all...

_I can't. I cannot stay...no more then I can leave so quickly. I can only do what I must to watch over them._

_I can ensure they are all safe, in the very least._

-o-

Zalika smelled more then heard the approach of Count Gregory. In her time in this place, she had come to smell the odor of this man's rotting flesh and realized that is was oddly appropriate for him. The man was a living mummy, cut into five and unable to become whole again, kept alive by unnatural means that shouldn't have been around in the time he died.

But he was alive, and all he saw was a way to keep the world under the rule of monarchs, of those chosen by blood to rule.

"How many more of my men are dead because of this 'shadow magic'?" the Count asked, causing Zalika to smile. He didn't care for these men, but their numbers were important.

"Only five today," Zalika told him, "The ones who are Observers and otherwise...altered have no hopes of passing the test of the Items. I am hard-pressed now to find new subjects, and on top of that, the trail of dead League members left by my elder brother is leading them towards us. Just not fast enough."

_So, brother, you seek to stop me? I am one not chosen by the Items; you are one who gained them easily! I cannot have my time?_

"What worries me is the tale that half-dead member told us," she confessed, "Of the woman bathed in blood with the eyes of a lion, who killed all the men and sunk your flying ship. If she is who I think she is, then she will be a good danger to us."

"And who is that?" Count Gregory asked. Zalika looked at him and tried to decide how best to word this. The man was a Christian, and while Zalika's clan had some ties to Muslim, her own upbringing had caused her to shun them. She and her clan were Egyptian, servants of the Divine Pharaoh. Like these monarchs in Europe, the Pharaoh's rule had been pushed aside, but if she was able to gain all seven Items...

"She is the embodiment of Divine Wraith, Count," she said, "she is called the Mighty One by those who do not want to speak her name. Her namesake is the goddess of war and plagues, who rode with my Pharaohs into battle and who scared away the invaders. She is also a traitor, leaving the palace when she was needed most to wander." Her smile was full of contempt. "If Judas was as strong as her, perhaps he would not have hung himself for carrion to eat, but taken his fate and wandered the world, shameful and alone."

The Count let out a growl, as he always did when she showed her contempt for his religion, and finally asked, "What of the men I recommended we find?"

"You mean the visionary Verne, and his protectors?" She laughed. "The Englishmen who angered the Cult of Osiris and killed a Spider Queen, and a Frenchman who knows nothing? I would only test them so I could watch them burn for the sins of their ancestors and countrymen. Your visionary I would hesitate on, but that is because even with the Shadow Games, one needs to advance as well, in case a tragedy should occur and you are faced with thieves that have powers beyond yours."

Zalika paused and then said, "But you should worry more, Count. How was it that the Mighty One knew where the Ankh was? If she knows where one is, she'll find us. And when she does..." Zalika's smile grew cruel and sadistic, "...when she does, you would beg for the horses and Turks to split you again before she was done with you."

"I doubt that."

"I do not. Take care, Count. I am here because you and I have the same goal; to put those who are supposed to be in power back into power. When you are done with my plan, you will toss me away, or try to keep me for later use. Do not think that when I am done with you, I will not hesitate to throw you away as well, and take the Items with me."

-o-

_A tall tower was before him, a pyramid of old but with something new inside. The tower changed, then before it was Typhone cut into five, and Zalika, raising her hands, the Eye and the Rod above her. She smiled down upon him and yelled for a storm to blow away those who would betray the laws of Ma'at._

_Lightning struck, and Typhone cut into five fell to one side, the man Phileas, now the agent of Ermanubi 1, falling as well, but holding onto the griffin he rode on when the chariot had headed for this now-broken tower. Zalika fell to the other side, screaming like a harpy of myths, and the ground opened beneath her. From there a pillar of blue-white light came up, lightning striking from the ground._

_And out of the hole, holding the Rod, was the shadow of the man who was the White Beast Tamer, the one who held the Rod during the time of the Nameless Pharaoh. _

_The Eye spun downward and was caught by the Mighty One, who looked over and handed the Item to Jules, who also held a thick tome in his hand. Rebecca looked over to where Phileas agent of Ermanubi was coming back with the griffin._

"_This is the divine law," the shadow of the White Beast Tamer said, handing the Rod to Jules as well while the beast above him melted into that of a woman with long blue hair and a plain dress, her hands clapped forever in prayer 2. "Man has forever built up a way to the heavens, and forever will it be brought down when hubris overtakes this. The Great Books are meant to be double-edged swords. Beware of that, and the Darkness that will be drawn to those which hold the creations from such books."_

"Saim?"

His eyes refocused and he shook his head clear of the vision. The light touch on his shoulder was the Mighty One, though Phileas, Rebecca, and Jules looked just as worried.

"It was a vision," he said, "an odd one, but I believe this could be good for us."

"What did you see?" Jules asked. Saim frowned.

"It is hard to describe after seeing it. I saw my sister and the man she is working with, and their defeat. I heard a warning for the one with one of the Great Books within him; a warning of how the Great Books cut both ways, and to beware of the Darkness which is drawn to them."

Jules seemed to look concerned, as did Phileas, but Rebecca looked at the Mighty One with almost a silent communication going between them.

Saim sighed. The visions were always simply symbols for what might happen, not what would. He had seen a vision that Rebecca and the Mighty One would fight, and while a few arguments had come up between the two, it main concerned the safety of the others. When it came to fighting the League or to anything else of any matter, neither seemed to want to fight, or even argue with the other, but instead shared what they could think of.

_Both feel strongly about us, _he considered as Passepartout quickly replaced the tea that, during his sudden vision, he had accidentally spilt on the table.

"How close are we?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Tomorrow we are getting there," Passepartout told him, "and then we are being ready for them."

Saim nodded, hoping that they were. Vision of victory or not, he had a feeling that not all of the visions would come true. At one point, a vision given by the Tauk would be proven wrong.

Saim hoped it would not be the one he just had.

1—Ermanubi is part of the Wheel in my Egyptian Tarot deck, representing goodness as Typhon represents evil. I looked him up, couldn't find any references for a real deity...

2—From the Yugioh series, this is Kisara, the woman who originally held the Blue Eyes White Dragon _ka _in her. As far as we know, Kisara didn't live a nice life: she was a foreigner with pale skin, blue eyes, and was very weak. She often lived out in the desert, only chancing going into towns if she needed water. When she did once, she was stoned by the villagers but save by Priest Seto. After he saved her, he found out she had a powerful _ka _in her, and took her back to the palace to treat her and later to see if he could release her power.

This involved putting her into an arena with two others who were fighting. Instead of fighting, the woman seemed to give up and Seto, just suddenly, went in to save her.

Cue the 'awwww' moment.

But their like/love/whatever didn't last, as she couldn't call forth the Dragon without being unconscious or in a coma. The main evil guy wanted her dead, so he tried to get Seto to kill her. When Seto didn't, main evil guy did.

So now Seto has a dragon and not a girlfriend.

Cue the sad 'awww' moment.


	6. The Tower

Chapter 6: The Tower

"_Ruin—The decapitated pyramid is the death of hope, the ruin of our constructions."---The Egyptian Tarot_

She didn't get any sleep that night either. Once more, the woman began to wonder if this was healthy, or if perhaps she was avoiding her sebah so she wouldn't have such a weight on her heart when she faced the men they knew they would face.

Phileas and Rebecca were up as well, if the sounds from below meant anything, and obviously preparing as well. Passepartout was up only because he had to steer the ship: Jules and Saim were either being quiet or both were asleep.

_The Divine Law of Ma'at..._

That had been taught by Akunadin, the eldest of the priests, the first to hold a Millennium Item...and the first to fall to its darkness...

--"_Why must I learn this as well? I am supposed to defend the Valley of the Kings."_

"_Yes, this is true," the old man said, the golden eye glistening as his real one showed only some amusement._

"_I am of a low birth!"_

"_So is Seto. His father was only a nameless soldier, I have heard, and yet I teach him. Besides, you should not speak so of your family. Your father was well-known for his weaponry, and your brother was best at the sword, and rising in the ranks before their mysterious deaths."_

_She felt her hand go to the sword-hilt that was lined with gold: all that she had left of her family._

"_So why should you _not _learn it? It is something that I am teaching to the Prince and to Seto. Don't you want to learn with them?"_

"_I am to train them," she told him, her eyes downcast, "I am not their equal."_

_There was a long pause before the old man placed a hand on her shoulder, "But you are. The Pharaoh has made it such."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_For saving the life of his son, and of Seto, and many others, from the Cult of Osiris, you have been given the rank deserving of such, and your namesake is now your title. You are Sakhmet, the one who rides with the Pharaoh into battle...just as Seto will do when he inherits a Millennium Item."_

_She blinked. When did this happen? Why was she never told...and if she was, why did she never believe it?_

"_You are lying."_

"_I don't lie about such things. Now come. We are almost late for the first class."_

_Mutely, she followed him into the room and sat where he motioned to. Both Seto and the Prince exchanged a grin, and the girl sent them a glare. If they thought this was funny, they should remember that one of their classmates was also one of their teachers...—_

During the years, Seto had taken to Akunadin, looking up to him as a father-figure he never had. It was obvious in the way he moved and looked to the older man for his approval in most things. She had never found it odd that the older man had approved of this and even encouraged it in Seto: Akunadin had no heirs, and Seto had no father.

Then the truth—Seto was Akunadin's heir, and thus the cousin of the Prince. Had the news not come at such a price, she knew that her sebah and her other would have celebrated, both realizing the family they had. She was also sure this would start a new rivalry between the two: as they grew, both became rivals of sorts, but the fact that they were so close to the other and challenged the other more so then any other priest or priestess showed how important it was for them to be together. Without one, the other wouldn't grow.

_My sebah...my other...Mahaado, Mana..._she smiled at the new memory, the one where she now saw the newest of the groups, and realized that her sebah's legacy of dueling would continue.

_-_-"_Wait up, please!" the dialect of Egyptian that she hadn't heard for a few years caused her to pause in her walk and turn as she saw a boy with light hair that stuck out many ways rushing after a taller boy with darker hair. The two wore outfits that reminded her of her sebah and other while they were young, but it was the next line that caused her some worry._

"_Please, Prince, we need to get back or else we'll be in trouble!"_

Prince? _She decided to follow the two—if they were speaking Egyptian, and one said 'prince', then that would mean..._

_Their trail lead them to a dark alleyway, where a man in a dark mask was laughing, holding a young lady captive. The girl was obviously taller then them, and had light hair and slightly lighter skin then the boys._

"_Let her go!" the dark-haired Prince said, glaring at the man._

"_Oh, for what, dear Prince of Egypt?" the man asked, smirking, "I would like your Soul—it would do well for my collec--."_

_She didn't let him finish the sentence as she came up behind him and plunged the knife into his throat. The man dropped the girl, who stirred and blinked quickly enough to take in the situation and rush over to where the two boys were before the blade left the man's throat and he crumbled to the ground. A small amount of blood had hit her face, and her eyes glowed slightly from the release of her powers. She looked at the trio before seeing the one called Prince move forward, intent on protecting the other two. "Who are you?"_

"_I am no one of consequence to you," she told him, "but you are far from your homes. You should return."_

_The girl nodded, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "She's right, or else Mana will be worried again."_

_The smallest boy blushed red and the woman blinked. Mana?_

"_Mana, the Girl Magnus?"_

_The group looked at her and the smallest nodded. "How do you know her?"_

_There was a long pause before she answered. "I am an old friend of hers. I will help you return home safely, if you allow me to speak with her."_

_The Prince nodded, his face breaking into a large smile. "Of course!"_

_With that, the small group headed for the house where the Prince and his 'court' were staying. This included the girl, who had been a servant that the Prince had saved from an abusive household along with her brother, a young studious man who had not joined them on their adventure because he was being punished for writing the Greek equations on the walls, the smallest boy's older brother who was going to take the test for the Millennium Scales, and a boy who had run away from his home and who seemed to give the Prince as much rivalry as the other had given her sebah 1._

_So they had entered the house, and the first person to come up was Mana, the Millennium Ring around her neck. She paused and looked over at their savior before gasping._

"_You!"_

"_It's good to see you too, Mana. How is the Pharaoh?"_

_Mana had blinked, then smiled and jumped up to hug her. For the first time, she didn't stop the woman from doing so, allowing her to hug her and cry, as if their sebah had returned from the Dead and spoken those same words._

_Then, of course, came the offers: will you stay? Will you come back with us, and train them? For each, the answer was no. The harm that had been done by many of the lower priests was too heavy still, and she had promised to not return until her Pharaoh allowed her to._

_And her Pharaoh wasn't Seto, or his son, or any of the children after that. It was the one who wandered the banks of that dark river, waiting for his trapped self to remember his name so he could cross and be at peace.—_

The woman stood, ensuring she was ready to face the group now. Her life had been long and tied just as much to her past as to her present. The young Prince had grown to be a Pharaoh, and after their dynasty had died out, a new one had risen up, and with its rise came the loss of the Shadow Games, or at least the knowledge of how to play them.

The woman walked out and now looked over to see Saim nearby. He shifted slightly and she now noticed the kukri knife added to his wardrobe.

"You are prepared to use it?" she asked him.

"I am...not so much against some...but I will do what I can."

She gave him a rare smile. "If you wish...at any time, you may address me as 'Mighty One'. I no longer mind it, Saim."

Saim looked at her with surprise, then bowed quickly, though not quick enough for her to miss the fact that his eyes were becoming watery. "It is my honor...Mighty One."

"Come then, Saim. We must go and reclaim the missing Items."

-o-

Rebecca was beginning to wonder if the words "simple grab-and-go" were every going to be used in a sentence and not jinx the whole operation altogether. Her opinion had been voice to the woman and to Phileas, both of whom had the same reaction.

They smiled, told her that they had the same thought, and it would be best to plan for the worst.

_It was as if they were related or something..._

Rebecca triple-checked her weapons and their places on her catsuit, walking out to see the woman speaking to Saim, who sported a kukri knife she wasn't sure he had even had. The boy and Jules were too much alike for her to enjoy the idea of him coming along as well, but both he and the woman had insisted on it, and so it seemed necessary.

The woman looked up at Rebecca and smiled, noting the suit. "Interesting. I guess I was expecting another dress, but I like this better."

"You should've seen some of the looks on the men's faces when they first saw it...Jules went red."

The woman smiled, turning to see Saim was looking away and also had become darker. "I think Saim is having the same reaction."  
Saim turned even darker at her gentle teasing and muttered something about going downstairs to check on the others before making a quick retreat.

"I think you scared him off," Rebecca said before saying, "I have a name for you. It would suit you, anyway."

The woman smiled and said, "Tell me after this. I would rather know it then instead of before."

"You're an odd one."

"I know. But I have a reason to be."

Rebecca gave her a small smile then turned to head down. Her dream had been odd, where Erasmus had appeared and took her over to a man sitting on a rock on a side of a dark river. The man had dark skin, and hair that stuck up like a crown and, despite the gloom, Rebecca could see it was multiple colors, a reddish tone on the outside while dark inside, and his bangs colored golden along with streaks that flowed upwards into the dark part of his hair, like lightning. Crimson eyes, saddened for a reason, had turned to look at her, and she saw that his sandals and the bottom of his cloak were caked in dirt and mud.

"Who are you?" he had asked.

"Rebecca," she told him, realizing that he spoke in Egyptian, and it was much the same dialect as what Phileas had somehow been able to translate.

"You are Phileas' cousin, then?"

"How did you—you've met Phileas?"

"Your other cousin has been kind enough to act as my emissary between this world and the other. Mahaado was acting as one to the boy with the Book of Knowledge within him. I have yet to meet him, but I suppose that is fine."

"I see. Then you must the one that my friend called her 'sebah'."

The man had smiled, moving to touch his hair. "I used to think she was teasing about that."

Erasmus had smiled at Rebecca and she then noticed the same mud caked his shoes as well. "Ras..."

"It's okay, Rebecca. I'm stuck here for a good reason, at least..."

"You could never lie to me, you know that."

Erasmus finally shrugged then motioned over to the young man, "Well, he's been keeping me company, at least. Oh, but if you have the chance, and she doesn't get too upset, tell that Sakhmet lady to—" he looked at the boy at this point for clarification.

"To realize that opening her heart will not kill her, but will allow the time to pass quickly. If she does not, then she may miss the one who will lead her to the rest of my spirit."

"I am going to pretend I understand that," Rebecca had told him with a slight smile. "Does Phileas know about this too?"

"I spoke to him, but I felt it would be best to speak to you as well. Both of you seem to have a way with people."

"Thank you—I think."

The boy smiled at her again, then had told her, "Please...do what you can to protect her from loneliness. I have watched for all these years as she has slowly grown more depressed, and slowly began to lose hope of seeing me again in the land of the Living. I have long lingered on this side of the river, and she has long been ready to give her life that I could cross. But I will not until she is ready to give me up."

Rebecca then realized the fullness of this, and had let some tears slip by before saying, "You know, then. You're an idiot if you don't."

The boy had nodded. "I know. I should've thought of that, but I thought that it could only be myself...and had it been her, then I and my High Priest would've tried to get her back, and possibly lost ourselves to the darkness of time as she has."

Rebecca gave a sad laugh then walked over and hugged the young boy. "Thank you."

"I wish to thank you, Rebecca, for helping her. That is all."

Rebecca came back to the present, where Phileas was loading up as well with dynamite and bullets as Jules looked uncomfortably at the small gun that Phileas was insisting he carry.

"We are almost there, Master," Passepartout said from the front of the room, getting everyone to ensure that they had what they needed. The plan was the go down via the drop box, and then from there Passepartout would fly a safe distance away and wait for their signal before coming back to pick them up via the same drop-box. Saim and Jules had looked a little uncomfortable about it, Jules having only seen it done but not actually trying it before while Saim simply looked uncomfortable about it, and the group looked out from the window to see what there was.

A large, relatively abandoned castle loomed nearby, the normally green hills turned brown and black, as if scorched by some unknown monster. Rebecca glared at the destruction while the woman looked down at her arm where the golden ankh tattoo was glowing slightly. Saim put a hand to the Tauk as it glowed as well, and Jules seemed more uncomfortable then before.

"Those aren't normal," Saim said, "that is the power of the Shadows, rebelling against the one using them in such a way. What has my sister been doing?"

"We're going to stop her, no matter what," the woman said, and the rest nodded as Passepartout announced they were at the site.

-o-

"Sir! Ma'am!"

Zalika turned as the messenger ran in, reporting that the back gate had been breached by a group of five...the two Foggs, a woman of unknown origin, Verne, and a man with the Millennium Tauk.

Zalika felt her hand ball up tightly. "Ammut devour him," she muttered, wishing for the power to smite her younger brother. He dare steal the Tauk from her, and now he comes to reclaim the other Items as well?

"Are there enough to keep them from the Items?" Gregory asked, Zalika's hate unnoticed.

"We believe so..."

"Strengthen it with as many as you can. We must not let them find them, nor must we let them leave here with them. However, the one who kills Verne is the one who will answer to me."

The messenger paled and nodded. "Yes sir." He raced off to relay the orders and Gregory looked to Zalika.

"Who is it that you cursed so?"

"No one of your consequence," Zalika growled at him, her face to the door and not bothering to face him. "He will be dead by _my _hand anyway. I am going out."

"We need you."

"And he will not stay with the Foggs or Verne, or the woman...if he knows where I am. This is something we must do, Count. I'm sure you'll understand, or you would, if your sibling came after you to kill you."

The Count gave a short laugh. "I killed all of them when they refused to join me."

"I thought as much."

-o-

The group had split up shortly after entering the castle, and despite the number of men, she had not seen a reason to summon any of her monsters, thinking it would only spoil her fun and her vengeance. These men were helping to destroy the countryside of a land, and they should pay. While she held no particular love of England, she despised wanton destruction of anything, and thus found herself taking her time as she killed, though she did remember that, at one point, leaving someone alive to tell her where things were could be a bonus.

Her trail left a good deal of blood on the wall, but she savored in it, feeling the strength of her monsters within her. If they couldn't come out, they would gladly add their bloodthirsty natures to her and help her defeat the ones in her way.

A man was cut down lengthwise, and his companion nearby screamed as half of the guard fell upon him before his head, and half the head of the former guard, when flying down the way to land in a pile of blood and body parts from the previous ones who tried to stop her. Around her was a golden glow, while her clothing had changed to that which she wore in Egypt, and was now dark and red with the blood of her victims, the blood seeming to be absorbed slowly, white spots appearing then disappearing as she ran into more men that she cut down with her sword, the curved Egyptian-style blade cutting sharply and swiftly. She looked and saw one man cowering to the side before going over and, noting that he was the survivor of her carnage, picked him up by the scruff of his neck as one would pick up a cat or puppy.

"So you survived."

The man was shaking visibly, parts of his face having blood droplets on it, and from the smell he was going to lose his mind soon, or in the very least realize that when she threatened him with something, she meant it.

She looked back at her work. The nearest and first had been shoved hard against the wall, his head caved in by the force while his partner has lost the right side from the left shoulder to his right torso. Another had been run through and then cut across to cut down another man, and a few more where in much the same state.

Not the worst she had done, but no where near the best either.

"I can never make as much carnage as I like with so many," she told him seriously, looking to him, "Do you want to live?"

The man gave a weak nod.

"Then don't try to fight me, and don't argue. If you do...well, your life is worth little now, so don't think I won't hesitate to kill you."

With her subject currently cowed, she half-pushed, half-dragged him along, meeting no resistance from the League. When she heard gunshots she paused, then relaxed after she heard Phileas curse.

Well, at least they were okay.

She walked around the side, saw Rebecca point then lower the pistol, and came upon their new dilemma.

The other group had a hostage as well...and this one was being rather annoying.

"You damned heathens, how can you follow that desert mongrel and believe you will win? Count Gregory shall show you no mercy! You will die by his hands and beg for it in the end!"

And loud.

"Good Lord, what happened to you?" Phileas' exclamation brought the group to look at her, Jules turning pale before the blood on her clothing disappeared completely and she tossed down her own captive, who quietly was shaking like a leaf.

"I ran into problems. They are currently fine. Oh, and don't go down the corridor I chose. You might slip."

"...we'll take your word for it..." Rebecca said, and from their looks it was clear that both Phileas and Rebecca knew what she had done on the other airship, they had simply forgotten for convenience sakes or, perhaps because of the way she had acted, had not wanted to mention it in front of Jules. Now with her standing there with an obviously scared and cowed hostage, it was clear that she was capable of very scary things.

"Who's that?" she pointed to the silent-but-steaming hostage which Phileas and Rebecca had managed to secure. Saim and Jules were watching over him and it appeared Saim had taken up a good idea by gagging the man shortly after she had walked in.

"...our hostage, actually," Phileas said, "I see you have one as well."

"We really only need one."

"So what do you suggest we do with the other? Release them?" Rebecca asked.

"No...kill them, actually."

The gagged man stopped trying to shout through his gag. The silent one cringed and looked up with pathetic "I didn't do anything wrong please don't kill me like you did the others" eyes.

"While I agree, how do we decide which one to kill? They both seem reliable...to a point," Rebecca pointed out. The gagged man went back to shouting, or trying to. The silent one whimpered.

"I haven't said I'd kill _you_," she told him, glaring at the man and causing him to nearly jump, "I said one of you. If you're good, maybe _you'll _be the hostage. After we're done here, you'll just have to worry about jail."

The prospect seemed to cause the silent one less worry, but he remained silent and with pleading "I'm being good don't kill me" eyes currently directed at the woman who had wiped out everyone else in his corridor.

"I wouldn't make promises to him."

"He's a little jumpy, Rebecca."

"I guessed as much. So how do we decide which one to take?"

Jules now joined in the conversation. "What about whoever answers which way we go? I mean...if they give us good directions, we'll be able to get to those Items and back, right?"

The group of Foggs and woman looked at him, then at each other.

"He has a point," Phileas said.

"Why not just flip a coin?" Rebecca asked.

"That's a little chancy," the woman pointed out.

"So are they're directions," Rebecca argued.

"I think mine will give us the best ones," the woman countered.

"If he can still talk after whatever it was he saw you do!"

You can see where this is going, right?

"Like yours is any better."

"Why are we having this argument? Why not just decide on the question so we can get the bloody Items and leave?" Phileas could and is now trying to stop it.

"And if one doesn't answer, then what? We kill them? Why not just get it over with and kill the one that is too traumatized to talk?" Rebecca asked.

"You don't need to talk to point out 'left', 'right' or 'center'," the woman countered.

"No, but noticing a trap might help," Rebecca isn't letting up, can't you tell?

"Not if you send him in first and he's the one who release the trap and dies," the woman pointed out.

For those who are curious, the shouting man has now stopped trying to shout and is currently contemplating his life. The silent man is cringing and actually hoping for such a death if it should come up, or that he'd be very lucky and actually get to go to jail. Jail was nice...no scary lady to kill everyone, just him, guards, and smelly other people who weren't psychopathic killers.

"Then we're down a hostage."

"Get another one."

"You make it sound simple."

"Shouldn't it be?"

"Dynamite doesn't really allow it to be."

"Then just shoot them and use dynamite only if necessary."

"We should stop them," Jules whispered to Saim.

"How?" Saim asked.

"..."

Phileas gets an idea. Raise gun and--"QUIET BOTH OF YOU!" 2

Plaster rained down on the two arguing ladies, causing them to look at Phileas, who was putting away the gun. "Now, Jules, Saim, if you could put our hostage over there with the other? Thank you." He turned to the women, "How about we ask if they'll show us the way?"

The two nodded, brushing the plaster off themselves as Jules took the gag off of the loud hostage and moved away while Rebecca walked over to her own hostage, knelt, and said, "As I'm sure you heard that argument, I'm also sure you heard the question. Now, which one of you will show us the way to the Items?"

"Slut!" the shouting man began, "I wouldn't show you the way if you offered me what's obviously used goods!"

"If you don't tell us in a polite manner," the woman started, angry at the man who should realize that insulting anyone, especially a woman with a gun and her cousin nearby, as well as a woman with a rather deadly-looking sword, was a bad idea, "I will take you to the next room, cut you open, tear our your insides, and shortly before you die from lack of blood or from some part of your organs being force-fed to you, I'll see about either setting you on fire or dragging you across the wall until your face and most of your skull has been destroyed and is in pieces on the ground or on the wall."

"..." "..." "..." "..." "...I think I'm going to be sick."

"Please do that elsewhere, Jules, you'll ruin the moment."

The silent man had gone back to shaking like a leaf. The loud man had glared at her and now said with a smirk, "You think I believe that, you desert bitch? I've had to listen to orders from one of your kind before, and I'm not about to listen to them again. You and those damned items can all go to hell, along with the ones who've worn them before and the ones who are going to wear them! You're a liar and a cow--."

The woman walked around Rebecca as the man said this, then grabbed him and now proceeded to drag him into the next room.

"Let me go, you cunt, I'm not through with you! If you think I'm scared of your bullshit, you have another--."

The door to a room nearby closed with a rather loud slam, causing some dust to rain down, while the group looked over at the door and Rebecca, calmly, looked back at the scared, silent man.

"I take it you're our guide. You will behave, I take--."

"AGH! NO, GOD, I'M SORRY I---AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I'll behave!"

"At least he talks." "I am going to be sick." "I wish that door was sturdier." "...history didn't lie, and I'm probably going to be sick too."

-o-

The woman contemplated the mess in front of her as her three beasts appeared, eager and hungrier then usual.

"I'm amazed it took so much out of me to do that...but perhaps it was so I could keep him awake."

Merew, Menw, and Itert growled and looked at her, then at the dead man, or remains.

"Are you turning towards carrion in your old ages? Trust me, you'll get sick."

Three more frustrated growls before she sighed. "Fine, eat what remains, but I did warn you."

The three pounced on the body, only slightly fighting for who got what as she put her hand against the wall to help herself up. Her fingers slipped slightly due to the blood and she looked at it before licking some off her hand. She spat it out and shook her head at the three chimeras. "Your tastes have dulled as well. Or you're very hungry."

She had expected the man to be loud, but he was rather vocal for the most part...and it thus made it easier to start force-feeding him his own liver. Of course the man had started to choke on it and that had made it so she had to figure out what to do with him. The walls could only help out so much when it came to dragging him across them—but then there were the torches.

She flicked her hand clean of most of the blood that hadn't decided to cling to her and sighed. Were the rest still out there? The door probably wasn't thick enough to stop the man's cries from going through, so they quite possibly heard him screaming as she pulled out the various insides and either cut them out or pulled them out. Again, the liver had helped, but the fact that the man passed out twice and had to be revived didn't help her situation.

With another sigh, she walked over to the door and opened it only enough to let herself out, then closed it before turning to face the group, knowing that blood covered her face, arms and hands, as well as was being slowly absorbed by her skin and outfit. To her surprise, the group was at the wall furthest from the door, and Jules looked a little green. Saim looked pale. Phileas and Rebecca were trying to hide the other captive.

"He said he'd behave," Rebecca told her as the woman walked over, feeling a little more energetic as the chimeras returned to their spots within her.

"I never said I'd treat him the same as the other man, as he is behaving and was beforehand. The other man was rude and called me a liar. I don't take well to being insulted and I never lie."

"Remind me to never invite you to a poker game," Phileas said, checking his gun and ammo quickly before saying, "So, where are you going next, so that we can avoid it."

The woman snorted and said, "Wherever there is Gregory or that girl whom Saim wants to fight."

"My sister, and you aren't supposed to fight Gregory."

She and the rest blinked before Saim shifted at their gazed then said, "In the vision, it was Phileas who fought him, not you. I saw those two fighting, and from the ground came a pillar of white light, and the White Beast Tamer."

The woman blinked rapidly before frowning then looking at the scared man. "Answer me this: did they bring more then just the Items to this castle?"

"Th-they brought...stone tablets. One with a dragon...and—"

"And? Any others?"

"...I don't know. I only know of the Dragon."

Anger took over and she growled softly, "Where is it?"

The man quickly babbled the directions and she headed towards it, ignoring the yells from the Foggs and not noticing Saim racing to catch up with her.

They dare desecrate her other's tomb and bring his Beast here? Did they not know what it meant to him?

She had heard the story, almost disbelievingly, of his near imprisonment and the death of his mother at the hands of raiders. However, the raiders had been killed by the sudden appearance of a great white dragon which shot lightning from it's mouth and devoured the rest. Years later, and after the punishment of her sebah, she learned that a pale girl with blue eyes had appeared in town, and she had been the vessel of the White Dragon he had seen as a child. He had taken her in after she had nearly been stoned by the villagers, and nursed her to health. However, his intention had been to see her power.

Her power came while she was asleep, her _ba _and _ka _too mingled to separate properly and allow her control of the dangerous monster in the frail woman.

And then...Akunadin had killed her, taken over her other's body, and forced him into a duel he never wanted.

Now his symbol was the White Dragon with the same blue eyes as the woman he had cared for...and they had taken it from his tomb. They had brought it here against it's will, and taken it from him, her love, her master...

The guard before her had no chance to raise an alarm as his head was severed and the partner next to him had no chance to yell out as a hand, nails longer and almost turning to claws, ripped into his throat. Inside of her, Itert raged at the thought and she let out a cry before attacking the group, her features seeming to gain feathers and her free hand becoming like a talon as she attacked the men and cut them down, even those who were already dead.

-o-

Phileas considered the mental map in his head, along with what the hostage had told them before they had departed. Both Items were in two chambers, and a middle chamber held the stone tablet that the woman had gotten worked up about. Phileas doubted she could've gotten angrier, and he could almost swear that her eyes glowed a dull golden color before she had gone off in the direction the man had said, Saim following behind her...which probably was only a little worse then before her.

But with the way he had told her, she would reach the chamber around the same time they did, if they went quickly and got the Items just as quickly. Well, to be more precise, if Jules got the Items quickly.

Phileas once more frowned. He hated that Jules had to be involved, especially seeing how the woman could act when provoked or when attacked. He and Rebecca had only caught a glimpse of the carnage left on the Prometheus, and hearing the screams of the man only showed them that the woman who could be kind and such was still also dangerous.

_Sakhmet...the Egyptian deity of war and pestilence, but also she was the dark side of the goddess of peace and cures.3 She fought with the Pharaoh in battles, and for the Pharaoh, but when there was no one to fight she had to stay in the palace and be tame. But who in their right mind thinks they can tame a lion?_

They reached their destination and Phileas let out a sigh. So far, no woman and no bloodshed...and no guards...

This only got Phileas more alert for possible traps, and he motioned as the group headed over for the first door containing an Item.

1—I just described the Yugioh GX characters, because I like past lives. They help screw with people's heads (like Kaiba's during Battle City...but I'll stop) and, as mentioned before, during the second episode one of them mentioned that maybe they were from Egypt or something. I thought the picture was too cute, and liked the idea so I went with it. Just so you know:

Prince—Yuki Judai/Jaden Yuki, who is the main character of the story, and who, here, is supposed to be the heir to Seto's throne. I mentioned him earlier, he duels with an Elemental Hero deck, the only exception to it being Hane Kuriboh ("Winged Kuriboh"), who is his 'aibou' (partner).

Short Boy—Marufuji Sho/Syrus Truesdale, the one who said those things about Judai being a Pharaoh and he being the High Priest or something. He is Judai's loyal sidekick and just as cute as Yugi. Seriously, the boy is CUTE...and yeah, obsessing over an anime character with eyes as large as their head is wrong, but again...CUTE. In the dubbed, he is almost constantly saying "wait up!" while running after Judai.

Girl—Tenjoin Asuka/Alexis Rhodes, the main girl of the group and current crush for pretty much everyone (with the exception of Judai, he likes Dueling too much to notice girls, school, or most other activities). The brother mentioned is her brother Fubuki/Atticus, whom she cares for greatly (for about half the anime he's missing and she's spending a good deal of time trying to find him, including wandering into creepy abandoned house and nearly getting herself kidnapped).

Studious Boy—Misawa Daichi/Bastion Misawa, who is one of Judai's rivals and who also puts equations on everything (seriously, in one episode he wrote equations on a baseball bat...). This somehow helps him Duel better, as he sees everything as a balanced equation and therefore tries to balance his decks (he has about eight he carries with him at all times, though he probably has more and they change depending on his opponent and how well he knows their Deck). He also uses equations to create decks that might defeat another person's deck (he does this twice: once to Jun and again against Judai, though he lost against Judai...and beat the snot out of Jun...)

Short Boy's Brother—Marufuji Ryo/Zane Truesdale, who was the top in Duel Academy and called "Kaiser" in the original anime. He can be cold but he does care for his brother...in a sense...you have to wait a while before it comes up, the guy is an iceberg when it comes to stuff like affection. He also has a Cyber Dragon deck, which is to say he's extremely hard to beat and I wouldn't go near him with any of my Decks unless you paid me good money in advance and then put in a bet for me to lose and split the earnings. I have him getting the Scales because that was the only one that seemed to suit him. He is a guy who likes balance in his life, and is hardly ever thrown a curve ball, though if one is sent his way he'll react how he sees fit.

Runaway Boy—Manjyome Jun (Thunder)/Chazz Princeton, who was supposed to be the best and help his brother's gain control of Dueling, Politics and Business. He's not very nice to Judai, often calling him "Dropout Boy" ("Slifer Slacker") and wants to defeat him utterly in a duel. Unluckily, evil things keep popping up and stopping that from happening...(yeah, this is the 'Seto/Yugi' duo for the new show, only they have more emotion to them—and physically fight, then get detention with each other.) At the middle of the first season, he leaves Duel Academy and ends up dueling Judai for a school tournament. When he loses, his brother's disown him and he ends up staying in Duel Academy, mainly to get back at Judai, and because he feels he belongs their. The two are very much like Kaiba and Yugi—not friends, but at the same time they'll join together and kick bad guy ass if need be, just so they can have a normal life and go back to dueling each other. Of their age group they're also the best of the Duelists.

2—Not the best of all arguments but it's one still...and it helps to remember that it's not all blood and gore...its some fun. Of course, if this was a horror movie, some large man wearing a mask of human skin and with a chainsaw would probably be rampaging the hallway, but this isn't so I'll stop with the horror movie references. (That one was Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

3—According to the Encyclopedia of the Gods and a few other websites I've visited, Sakhmet is the Egyptian Goddess of War primarily, and also of pestilence and disease, at least against the enemies of the Pharaoh. She is said to ride into battle with him, and is also supposed to be the embodiment of vengeance used by her father, the Sun God Re. In some myths, she's another form of Hathor or Bast, both of whom are healing or calm deities. Despite being a goddess of war and disease, she also helps protects against diseases.

Chapter 7: The Wheel

"_Destiny—Destiny turns under the impulses of the wheel: Ermanubi grows while Typhon falls headlong."—The Egyptian Tarot_

The wooden door was without a lock, and the moment Jules stepped in his stomach turned. On a pedestal in the middle of the room, without much flair, was a small object that looked like an eye, complete with the odd eye-like symbol that adorned the Tauk which Saim wore. Around the pedestal and in most of the room were the corpses of men and women, all burned and all missing their left eye, though on the floor around them were the remains of those eyes, making the stench of the room unbearable, or near to it.

Jules felt himself shake as he cautiously and slowly took a step in. On the pedestal, the eye began to glow as if in response to his presence, and he swallowed down the bile building up before taking a few more steps, feeling himself shake as he made his way to the Eye. He finally stopped at the pedestal and looked around. If there were traps, he doubted it, as who else would come into such a room unless to take the trial? Still, he was worried and carefully reached over to touch the Eye before fully grasping it in his hands.

There was a brief flash before he heard an man's voice, pained and seeming to come from years ago, like that of the Magnus of Illusions.

--"_A wish? Fine...I wish for my son to be Pharaoh."—_

Then there was another voice, one from the future and faint, with an American accent to it.

--"_I will see anything? Then I wish to see Cynthia again, if only once!"— _1

Jules gasped as he was thrown back into reality and the glow of the Eye went dead. His hand shaking, he put it into his pocket and turned to make his way just as slowly across the room again and shut the door.

"Are you okay?" Phileas asked.

"A little...ruffled, but I'll be fine."

Some of his visions had been as vivid, but most had been machines of the future, giant towers of glass and steel, not visions of the past or with the voices from them. Were those the ones who had owned, and would own, the Millennium Eye?

Swallowing again, Jules followed the Foggs and their hostage to the next door before opening it. Instead of the same carnage as before, this one held few bodies, if any. Most had turned to ashes it seemed, burned by some marks made from one part of the wall.

_The far wall, leading to where the stone tablets are, which would mean where that Dragon that she got to worked up about is._

Jules recalled his dream and the fact that the White Beast Tamer had been the woman's other, whom she cared for just as much as the one she called her 'sebah' and whom the Magnus of Illusions had been watching over as well.

Just as slowly, he entered the room only to have the door quickly shut behind him as Phileas and Rebecca let out a surprised yell and tried to open the door. Jules turned and suddenly the room was bathed in golden light. He turned and had to shield his eyes, seeing it coming from the Rod, before feeling himself moving forward, heading for the center point.

--"_High Priest...Seto...I have no way of thanking you for my life. You have my eternal gratitude."_

_The man with cool blue eyes looked at her critically. His hair was hidden by a tall blue crown that symbolized his authority, a golden snake rising from the center. His whole outfit was blue, saving for the golden ankh that spread across his chest and for the bangles that adorned his upper and lower arms and wrists._

"_Woman...what is your name?"_

_His voice was steady and just as cool, like water in a pool, giving no trace of how safe or dangerous it was._

"_I am called Kisara." It was a plain name for one such as herself, and she only briefly saw him still studying her before out of the corner of her eyes she saw something that caused her a good deal of fright._

_Nearby, above a large platform of wood and rope, were two men who fought with monsters, the beast's cries and such shaking her into a sudden outburst that she wouldn't have normally said, especially in such high company as High Priest Seto._

"_Priest Seto...Why have I been brought here? What is this place?"—_

"Stop this..." Jules whispered, still continuing forward as the golden light became edged with blue lightning.

--_The two monsters turned for her and Geblek had said she would call the God, the White Dragon which he had seen as a child and who had saved him._

_Why wasn't it appearing?_

_What was wrong with the girl?_

"_My spirit Duos!" the sword-wielding spirit that he had raised himself through training and meditation jumped forward as he did, racing over to come between his spirit and the girl, grabbing her hand in case of anything. The pale woman, Kisara, seemed to be in a stupor, unsure as to what was really going on and, just as oddly, seeming to know that something bad was going to happen._

"_Why won't you call the White Dragon?" he asked her, then glared at the other two prisoners, those who remained of his ka hunt, "That's enough, you two! Stop!"_

_One of the prisoners laughed. "So a priest has joined us, eh?"_

_The other jumped in, "Now we can repay you for all we've gone thorough."_

_His plans for letting these two live were gone._

"_Go my spirit! Aura Sword!" the sword cut into the chains around them, sending one man and his demon to their deaths while, somewhat luckily, the Rod acted as a way to hold him to one of the last links in the chain, while dangling from his free arm was the woman Kisara._

She's too light...she should've eaten more...I'll have to make sure of that, when I get out of here.

"_Girl...are you alright? Hold on!"_

_Above him he heard a laugh, causing his attention to shift to the last of the prisoners._

_Who's monster could spin webs and who had trapped his Duos spirit._

_The large spider monster came for him and as it did, he heard Kisara whisper one word. "Seto..."_

_Below them appeared a blinding light, transforming into the shape of a white-scaled Dragon, the same he had seen before, the one who had saved him._

_Then she was the girl from his youth...she had now saved him twice._

No, I owe you my eternal gratitude, Kisara...

_He chanced to look down and now saw that the woman's eyes were completely blue and vacant, as if she was not within this world. He had to wake her up, to get her to use the Dragon—2_

"Stop!" Jules fell to a knee as the lighting crackled around him, "I'm only here to return you to your home! I'm not here for the test! I swear—Sakhmet sent me to retrieve the Rod!"

The lightning and golden light suddenly died down, and Jules found himself breathing heavily before seeing the ghost of a golden-sandal enter his vision. He looked up to see the ghost of the man from before standing in front of the Rod, looking at him critically. "_Is this true_?'

Jules nodded.

"_Then I have a favor to ask of you, holder of the Book of Knowledge_."

Jules raised to his feet, feeling himself shake from the memory/visions that had assaulted him, then answered.

"What do you need me to do?"

-o-

Saim had slowed due to the carnage left behind by the Mighty One, and found himself wishing he had stayed with the Foggs and Jules instead of going after her, but he knew this wasn't something good. He hadn't expected for his sister to do such a thing, but bringing one of the stone tablets, and a tablet that had rested in Pharaoh Seto's tomb, was obviously not the best of ideas she had come up with.

The trail of bodies left were all torn or shredded, as if a large lion or bird of prey had come though and taken out many of them. His body shook as he tried to force down the bile rising from the sight before him.

He turned and found himself facing Rebecca and Phileas, both of whom were trying to force open a wooden door with a blazing Eye of Wadjet on the surface.

"Damn!"

"What's wrong?" he asked, coming up to them and causing both Foggs to turn and look confused.

"What happened to our angry friend?" Phileas asked, looking around.

"I thought she came this way."

Rebecca shook her head. "We haven't seen her, and now Jules is trapped in there."

Saim looked at the door and put a hand on it. The Tauk glowed slightly but he was given no insight as to what was happening, only that Jules was safe for the moment.

"He's fine," he told them, "I'm not sure what is going on, but I know he's okay. But for now he's safer there then he is out here. We have to find and stop the Mighty One. If this continues...I don't know how many will be killed or if her rampage is easily stopped."

The two Foggs nodded, casting one last look at the door before the three headed out in search of the Mighty One and the two who had caused such destruction.

-o-

Zalika waited, wondering if her brother was dead already, thus taking one opportunity to relieve herself of that family tie forever.

How she hated her brothers. They were chosen by the Items, loved by her parents, while she had been shunted off to other servants, and treated as one as well. She was the first girl-child, and the Tauk, by right, should've been hers. Instead, it went Saim, the youngest. A boy!

All other holders of the Tauk had been female, had been women!

The sound of faint voices reached her and she looked up only to see Count Gregory be wheeled in. A snort of hate and contempt escaped her as she stood from her spot. "Do you think you'll be safe here?"

"There is someone after us."

"I am not surprised...we are under attack, after all."

The man with him was splattered with blood and shaking. "You don't understand...this woman! She...she..."

Zalika did understand, though, from his reaction, and smiled at it. "She is the Mighty One, whom I warned you about, Count." Her smile grew at the thought. "How fitting. I heard in some of the cultures from south of our divine land, to enter into adulthood one must kill a lion. I wonder, if one kills a lioness-goddess, will one attain godhood then?"

The pistol she reserved for her brother was cocked with a click as she gave a smile to the Count. "Perhaps today you will see how you truly destroy the past, and with more then just the words of a man who was crucified with two common thieves."

"Do not insult my Savior again."

"Your very presence and your acts in my land have insulted my Gods, as well as destroyed the holy monuments dedicated to the Dead Osiris of our past, to all of those who went before him and who took the trial of the Scales of Ma'at. I have all the reason to insult one who would be gentle with humanity instead of do as your God of Old did and rain down fire upon the wicked. The Mighty One is supposed to be Divine Wraith. If I kill her, if I take her Items, then I will become the Mighty One."

"Such foolishness."

"Do you not drink of your Savior's blood, or eat of his flesh, to be one with him? Do you not hang his image around you so that he may be shown in all of his suffering, that you would know your suffering is less then his? He did not have to defeat his uncle to win a throne rightfully his and only lose it just as quickly, so that all those after him would be the Living Horus and the Dead Osiris. He did not search for the body of his loved one and then have to search again after it was torn by the one who slew him. The suffering of one who knows what will come is nothing compared to the suffering of those who don't and have, for that brief moment, faith that they might be reunited with their loved ones again. Do not call my faith foolishness, and do not insult my Gods. Perhaps then I will not insult yours." 3

The Count growled but said nothing, and Zalika turned back as a few shots were heard but nothing conclusive. She was personally amazed that the Mighty One would come this far, or even go to such troubles to gain back the Items she turned her back on. After the event which created the Millennium Puzzle and a Nameless Pharaoh, the Mighty One had killed many priests and then left the palace. The tale was that these priests had defiled the tomb and erased the name of the Nameless Pharaoh in order to make a magic that would reopen the door to the underworld, where Zork had come from. Instead of staying to punish more for their misdeeds, or to help find the one who would summon Zork again, she had left the palace, only being seen once by Seto's son and what would become his court, but by no one else.

So the Mighty One had left Egypt, and none could bring her back.

None but the Nameless Pharaoh, who's soul was lost to time, for without his name he couldn't enter the world of the dead, and because he sacrificed himself to save them, he had no body to embalm.

He was only a wandering spirit, punished for saving the world, and the Mighty One had turned her back on the Living to follow such a spirit.

_I will take your Items, and become the Mighty One. Then I will raise the great Pharaohs again to their glory, and the world will fall before them as they should. I will be the Divine Wraith of the Sun, and you will wander with your Nameless Pharaoh, never entering the world of the dead to be with your court or your friends, if you had any._

-o-

The trail of corpses slowly lead around and back, causing Phileas to grimace as he considered everything. Jules had gotten the Eye, but for whatever reason the Rod had decided to trap him in the room, and now he, Rebecca and Saim, following their silent guide, were on the trail of the woman who seemed to have gone insane.

Phileas didn't realize such carnage could exist, but it did. Many of the bodies encountered were simply cut down, while others had been overly mauled. It was like this woman was slowly becoming a beast.

_If she is so rabid, will we have to put her down?_

Something in Phileas told him no, not to. What harm was the woman after this was all done? Before any fight she was calmer, she was collected, but she was lonely. She needed someone to help her ease the pain of those years she had waited and would wait for her sebah to return.

Rebecca had said they would give her a name and the invitation to join them. Phileas had no quarrel with this, and he doubted Jules would either, even after knowing of her destructive nature. She had shown to be a good friend, if a little odd at times, but one who would be a great help. If his odd dream, that he didn't wish to think of at the moment, was correct, then she needed friendship, and he'd be damned if she rejected it from them.

Phileas silently cursed as they turned and once more found no sign of the woman, or that she might have come this way. Where the hell was she? Jules was trapped in the room with the blasted Item, and from what they knew, they were running in circles, trying to find a very elusive woman who seemed to have gone berserk.

But he did understand. If anyone had disturbed Erasmus' tomb...

It had been hard enough when they thought that his father's body had been taken, though the news that it was actually ashes still in the coffin was a small comfort.

The alien ship that rose up from the church...that was another story...

"Where did she go to?" Rebecca asked, obviously as annoyed as Phileas was. The captive shrugged, obviously hoping he didn't run into her, while Saim seemed more then a little worried.

They finally turned to the next corridor and found it devoid of any sign of the woman. Still, at the middle and to the left was a wooden door with a silver knob on it.

Saim blinked, then said, "There."

"She's in there?"

"She will be. But currently in there are Typhone cut in five and my sister. We must enter."

Phileas frowned. While he felt that _something _was drawing him towards that particular door, he didn't want to just rush in. And he had to guess that 'Typhone cut in five' was Gregory. The prospect of fighting him was a good one.

"That is where she will enter to help us, and that is where the last battle will occur. It is there all of fate will be decided, and the Tower will crumble."

Phileas shared a look with Rebecca, who seemed fine with entering into the space as long as they were careful. The guide was shaking, and then suddenly took off and back down the corridor.

"So much for him," Rebecca said, "I doubt he'll try to come back, anyway."

Phileas nodded, then let out a breath. "Well then. Let's get this over with."

1—The first voice he heard was Akunadin, the priest who originally owned the Millennium Eye. The second voice was that of Pegasus, who gained it during a trip to Egypt after the loss of his love. Akunadin was the one who created the Millennium Items and who was responsible for the way thief king Bakura turned out. He is also responsible for the death of the Pharaoh (see earlier chapters). Pegasus, later on, gains the Millennium Eye and uses it to humiliate various people, as well as to get Yugi to come participate in Duelist Kingdom in order to save his grandfather's soul. He uses the power of the Shadows to get Kaiba to Duel him in such a way that he would be able to read his mind and thus beat him (I call it cheating and don't count the Duel as one against Kaiba, he was under stress), then used that same power to put his soul into a card. While Dueling him, Yugi and Yami were able to evade the Mind Scan by switching places, but after a while it was turned into a Shadow Game and Yugi's soul nearly died.

I personally think Pegasus should be hit just for calling the two good Duelists "Kaiba-boy" and "Yugi-boy", but that's me...

2—Those scenes are from the manga with some elements of the anime thrown in. The scene is actually when Kisara first meets Seto in adulthood. In the anime, they put in a back story where Seto, as a child, freed a slave girl with pale skin who thanked him and only learned his name. When Seto returned home, he found his village being burned and his mother dead. The raiders were killed by a large white dragon, and Kisara is supposed to have a white dragon for her ka. In the manga, there's no such back story, as far as I know, only that when the woman falls asleep or into a coma-like state, the White Dragon appears, and Seto was looking for a ka that could help them defeat Bakura's ka. The problem was that Kisara's soul and the monster were so intermingled that it couldn't appear while she was conscious, and she couldn't exactly control it because when it was around, she was in a coma. Then the only way to actually have it was to take it from her, which would lead to her death.

I already explained this many times, so you probably get my drift. It's sad, and I feel for Seto. He loses his Pharaoh and his love in pretty much the same week.

3—For Reference: The Pharaohs were known as the Living Horus while alive, and the Dead Osiris while dead. This is because it was believed that the Pharaohs were supposed to be the embodiment of Horus in life, and after death they became the embodiment of Osiris. Osiris was the first king of Egypt (Re was the king of the Gods) who was tricked by his brother, Set, into going into a box and then, after being sealed in, tossed into the Nile. Isis, his wife, traveled to find him and finally did after years of searching. She and Anubis, the God of Death/Embalming, tried to restore him, but before she could complete it, Set found the body, tore it into 13 pieces, and flung it all over Egypt. This sent Isis on another quest for her husband's body, which she was able to put together except for one part, the phallus. Despite this, she did raise her husband, who stayed with her only long enough to somehow get her pregnant with Horus. After that he returned to rule the Land of the Dead. Horus, when he was old enough, challenged Set for the throne and eventually won, in a sense. In some stories, both die and end up becoming like the Angel/Devil on people's shoulders. In another, Horus kills Set and gains the throne, while in another Set is not killed but given rule over the Desert.

The Scales of Ma'at are the ones depicted in many of the drawings for the Book of the Dead. To on side is the feather of Ma'at, and on another is the dead soul's heart (the Egyptians believed all memory was stored in the heart). People were asked questions about how good they were in life and their misdeeds or lies were measured against the Feather. If the feather was lighter then their heart, they were heavy on misdeeds and punished, usually by being feed to Ammut. If the feather was heavier, then they had little or no misdeeds and were allowed to stay with Osiris' court.

And here Zalika is just being a bitch, so please don't hurt me for what she said.


	7. Justice and Judgement

Chapter 8: Justice

"_Balance—Re-establishes order, that is the balance between Law and Duty, between Good and Evil"—The Egyptian Tarot_

Blood...

She was coated, she was tasting and drinking and sweating blood.

Tawny eyes slowly opened to look down the corridor at the locked room, the golden symbol of Wadjet glowing at her, inviting and barring her from entry.

Inside of her, Itert was calmer but still in a small rage, though something seemed to awaken it to another point.

She had stalked a different direction, and now rounded back to a point she had not gone down, noticing someone run away but not caring too much. She saw a heavy wooden door with a silver handle, and she knew that she had to go inside.

Destiny pushed her forward.

A strange feeling held her back, at least for the time. A familiar hand and face stopped her, facing her as he did when she was a child and he was teaching her to defend herself. Women were often not warriors but he had seen that she would be one, and had taught her what he could before—

Before—

Blood and anger coated her and stopped her memories of herself, while the monsters within her raged and helped her drink up the blood.

The ghost before her turned and looked at his twin walked in with a woman that had red hair and a man with a small knot of hair on the back of his head.

She wanted to go forward to them, but she didn't remember them, only that they were not those to kill. But within the room were those to kill, those to harm for their transgressions against her other, those who had—

Who had—

stop

She would kill them all, all those who would betray the ones who were hers, all those who had harmed the Valley of the Kings. She protected that valley, how dare they—

stop it

More hands and faces, but the one she noticed was the man in front of her, who had first stopped her, and a growl escaped her throat before she tried to lunge but the other hands and faces stopped her.

Mes-ensenef, my younger sister, only surviving member of the Court of Atemu, and one called Sakhmet, the Mighty One, REMEMBER YOURSELF! 1

The blood and anger dropped away as she gasped, her memory flooded with the last time such a rage had taken over her. The cursed thief had nearly used the spirits of Kul Eruna to kill her sebah and some of the other priests who had been there. Mahaado as the Magnus of Illusions had appeared to save her sebah and told him the truth of his father's knowledge about the village.

The spirits had tried to attack her but had been repelled by nine spirits, the spirits of her family, showing her strange kinship with the cursed thief.

And then she and Mahaado had begun their attacks...more accurately, she had allowed the anger of herself and of her monsters to take hold, and then later joined with them, becoming rage and the embodiment of the Eye of Re.

When she had been awoken from that, her wounds had doubled, many of the priests and those who had served in her sebah's court were dead, and Akunadin had forced her other to fight her sebah.

Then her sebah had given himself up to save his home, and had died, his body gone, the Pendant now a Puzzle...

"My brother," she whispered, "release me. Let me go in and fight with my friends."

In a moment, sister, he said, smiling. He did indeed look like Phileas had the man been younger and tanned, his eyes twinkling as he saw that she had regained herself.

"Thank you...thank you for reviving me."

There is no Mana here to revive you, nor any others. It took a good deal of time last time for you to remember yourself, and this time was no different. There are only a few living souls in this castle now.

She didn't realize she had killed so many...and found herself uncaring for the men. All of them had served the League and all of them had a hand in this, so they had to be punished.

"I will wait."

-o-

"I thought I smelled something."

Gregory glared as Phileas Fogg, Rebecca Fogg, and a dark man walked in. Zalika smirked as the dark man pulled out a kukri knife and she laughed. "Brother. You dare come here to confront me?"

"You have stolen that which is not yours, sister, and I fully intend to stop your plans and to take them back to their proper places."

Zalika laughed as she held up her own knife, curved much like the sword that the woman used. "Are you so sure of that? You were gifted with the Item that should've been mine. Our brother has the Scales, and you are the first of a long line who gained the Tauk yet were a male? I will gain all the Items if I can, and revive the Pharaoh as well as the ways of Ma'at, and set this all right."

"It is right, you are too blinded by the darkness in your heart to see it."

Phileas looked to Saim and then to Zalika before saying, "Well, I suppose we can allow these two to settle their sibling rivalry. Rebecca, if you would be so kind as to ensure that we don't have anyone interrupting, I and Count Gregory have some unfinished business of our own."

"Of course, Phileas," Rebecca said, moving back as Gregory fused his parts together long enough to pull out a large sword from nearby.

Phileas fired as Saim and Zalika charged each other and Gregory deflected the first blast before heading towards his rival.

-o-

The man ran, heading for the outside. If he got there, he wouldn't have to deal with the woman, the insane woman who had killed everyone, who would kill everyone.

The demon, the one—

Heavy hands grabbed him just as he saw daylight and he was stopped, seeing men in dark clothing from the lands of the Sahara. One man in particular held a pair of golden scales, a white feather in his dark turban.

"No!" the man said, "I won't go back in! Please! That demon-woman...she's killed everyone."

"The demon-woman?" the man with the scales said in the same halted English as the man Saim from before, "Tell me what you know of her, and perhaps your life will be spared."

-o-

She was getting impatient.

While the monsters inside of her raged only slightly, she knew somehow that her time to enter was coming up and she needed to get nearer to the door. However, the spirits of her family weren't letting her move, insisting that a specific sign would appear that would show her the right time.

_By Ra, if I don't get in there soon someone might get hurt, or die. I'm not going to let that happen again to anyone I've let into my heart. Not again!_

She suddenly blinked when she saw Jules Verne walk around the corner, the Millennium Rod in his hand, held very much like a priest would hold it, and shadows covering his eyes.

"Jules? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said, his voice odd, "don't worry about me. We should worry about the others."

She blinked, feeling the restraints of her family leave as she moved forward towards Jules. "What are you talking about? What's wrong?"

"They must be punished. The Divine Law of Ma'at demands it."

"...Jules...what--." She stopped as he looked up at her and gave a confident smirk that was not his own. His normally chocolate-colored eyes were now a deep blue color, and held confidence and arrogance like none she had seen before. Almost instinctively, Itert appeared next to her and walked over to nuzzle the free hand, 'Jules' allowing his hand to pet the large griffin.

She stood frozen in shock before he turned back to her. "It's good to see you too, Sakhmet."

"...Seto?"

1—Her real name is Mes-ensenef, which translated means "born of blood". The Phileas-look alike is her older brother, who was supposed to be a great swordsman before he and the rest of her family were killed. The spoiler here only is the name of the court she belonged to, with Atemu being the actual name of her 'sebah'. In the manga and the anime, when the Pharaoh goes after Bakura in Kul Eruna, Bakura calls upon the souls of those who had been used to make the Millennium Items to help him kill the Pharaoh. They also help protect Bakura's monster from harm. Despite only having nine 'ghosts' attached to her, these are all her family members and thus they are often very powerful in both stopping harm from happening to her, and from her harming anyone else when she needs to calm down. And yeah, she can go berserk. She has three bloodthirsty monsters in her, and all of them have qualities of a lioness. She gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, and people die.

Chapter 9: Judgment

"_Renewal—A moment which everything will change and in which everything will no longer be important."—The Egyptian Tarot_

Sparks flew as the two knives once more clashed and Saim's got the edge, cutting a long line across Zalika's cheek. Blood trickled down and her glare turned murderous. One hand itched for the gun she had gotten ready for him, but she had decided to save it for the last, for the moment when he thought that his victory was at hand.

Saim had been meek, but when it came to knife-fighting, he was the best of the three siblings.

Thus Zalika had her hidden gun. She knew that when it was time, she would use it against her brother, and take his Item.

She moved to repay him for the scar she would have, but he easily blocked it and sent her backwards towards the wall. She had only enough time to cast a look and see that Gregory was not faring much better against Fogg. The Englishman at least had all of his parts together, and because of that he had much more stamina then the decaying Crusader.

Her brief glance over at Gregory nearly cost her the blade she wielded, and she turned back to her own fight.

She would destroy her brother, kill him, let him fail when he thought he had succeeded! For everything that had happened to her, he would pay!

She jumped away from him and gave him a wicked smile. "I curse your line, my brother. Win or lose, the line which bears the Tauk shall always have their siblings turn against them. They will be those who must face up against them, or those who must find another to face them. Your line will produce another traitor, and perhaps he will even kill the Pharaoh! 1"

"No," Saim told her, "my line may have another traitor, as you curse us with, but this traitor will help to deliver the Pharaoh to the Door, and to his way into the afterlife. That is my own curse, that yours will come to pass, but fail instead, just as your plan and actions will fail you."

Rage boiled in her, and with a loud curse she lunged at him, intent on killing him with the knife instead of the gun. He _dare _tell her how her curse will end? He _dare_ say that his line will help the Nameless Pharaoh anyway?

_He will die!_

She forgot her original plan to allow him to think he won, instead attacking with all of her rage before pulling the gun and cocking back the hammer, then with a sadistic smile at his look of horror, squeezing the trigger.

-o-

Phileas found himself having only a slightly rough time against Gregory. It appeared that the man wasn't as good as he thought, and easily overestimated in this case.

Phileas quickly dodged the sword strike to see that a few of the guards were causing Rebecca little trouble, but not enough for him to worry about. He parried a second strike with a confident smirk on his face while seeing that Saim, at least at the moment, had an upper hand against his sister.

The Count breathed heavily against whatever strain there was for him at this time, and glared at Fogg. Phileas gave a confident smirk. "A little old for this, Count? Perhaps you should give up."

"Never," Gregory said, now coming at Phileas in a straight charge, almost too fast for Phileas to properly dodge or even think of what to do before the sword ran him through...

-o-

She walked over to Jules and the purring Itert before looking at the door. "Why did you do that, Seto?"

"He allowed it. He is watching, and won't allow me to hurt his friends. Besides," the same smirk, "this could possibly be what happens to our Pharaoh when the Puzzle is completed. I might as well see how things are for him."

"Still as arrogant as ever," her hand fell onto the door, "Then we have no choice, do we?"

Jules/Seto nodded, and with that Itert disappeared back into her, and she opened the door quickly.

-o-

Before her shot was made, or the blade met it's mark, the door burst open, and Zalika pulled away, seeing a boy who had to be Jules and the traitor Mighty One enter into the fray, the Mighty One helping the red-haired Englishwoman to cut down the last of the guards. The boy simply stood there, looking over to her and glaring, the Millennium Rod in his hand, and his cool blue eyes judging her for all that he must consider as her misdeeds. She raised her gun, a new target in sight, and began to pull the trigger as he raised the Rod and said something in Egyptian.

Her surprise made her pause, not noticing her brother heading forward to stop her had also paused as was now backing away quickly. That was a spell of Summoning! But—

She looked down below her feet and realized her folly too late, as the ground beneath her glowed a brilliant blue-white color, and from one end of the stone tablet rose the head of the White Beast. Blue eyes regarded her with hatred before the white-scaled dragon opened its mouth to roar and Zalika, scared, tried to fire upon it.

The monster didn't bother to attack with the lightning it created, instead going down to snap at the woman, taking off the top half of her body in one clean swipe. To the side, Saim watched in awe and horror, feeling sadness that his sister had died, but not so much because of her misdeeds.

_I hope you find some rest, sister, but I know that it will not be in the Court of Osiris._

Then two questions came to mind. One was how Jules knew the spell of Summoning. The next was why Jules' normally brown eyes were now a blue color.

-o-

Gregory had succeeded in putting Phileas off-balance, but in a bad way for him, allowing Phileas to duck instead of move, and thus exposing most of the equipment that kept him going. Phileas made what work he could as he got out, severing two or so of the tubes that had kept the parts of Gregory together or, in some cases, suspended, and causing them to fall useless to the floor. Gregory wheezed as his air-supply was beginning to cut off and Phileas, with one last look of disgust, put his sword through the Count's head. The eyes of the Crusader grew dim and then blank before what was left of his body fell over, shatter into the three remaining pieces that were left.

"Now," Phileas muttered, "stay dead."

"He will," the woman said, "I don't think that he could be deader. Unless there are monks around who have a soft spot for insane Crusaders."

"He doesn't get to be lucky twice," Jules said, his voice off, and Phileas quickly looked at him before Jules gave a smirk that he never would've worn at all. "I suggest you get your sword."

Phileas frowned but did so, wiping it off before he noticed that the huge white dragon was still around, looking at Jules with a...longing?...expression.

_What the hell happened to him in that room?_

Jules said something in Egyptian that Phileas recognized as an order of attack, and the monster turned before a large ball of white lightning appeared in its open mouth and streamed out towards the corpse of Gregory. In a flash, not even the smell of burned flesh was left.

The woman snorted. "Show off."

Jules gave her a smile. "So?"

Rebecca looked at Jules with an odd look as well, telling Phileas she knew that something was up as well, and Phileas was the one who spoke on the matter. "Alright, now what the bloody hell is going on?"

Another voice answered for him. "What is going on is a new trial; a trial to see which one of you is worthy of the sacred Items."

-o-

Saim turned suddenly at the voice and glared, his hand around the knife gripping it a little too tightly as he said, "Brother."

"Saim," his brother, Seftut, glared to him, "you are here against orders. I am the head of the Tombkeepers who guard the Door of the Afterlife, as well as the Sacred Tablet. You have already been punished for your transgression...was that not enough?"

The Mighty One growled at Saim's brother and stepped between the two. "Enough, both of you. They will not take the trial of the Items, nor will you do anything to impede our exit from this place. We were here because of your folly, and now that it has been corrected, we will leave."

Seftut proved to have as much sense as the captive which Phileas and Rebecca Fogg had found. "You are nothing to us, traitor. Step aside, and speak not to your betters."

Jules Verne, strangely enough, was the one to speak up, and in the old Egyptian as well. "She is your better, not the other way around. She was made a Priestess-Warrior by Pharaoh Akhenamkhanen for saving his son from the Spider-Queen and her Cult, and you _dare _say she is not your better?"

"That's enough," the Mighty One replied in Egyptian as well, "You may have his body, but it does not give you the right to speak as such, my other. You forget, this is still the world of the Living; you have come here for some purpose, and when that is done, you must return to the Land of the Dead."

"Those weren't just my words," Jules said, and Saim finally added, also in old Egyptian, "Mighty One, you are no more below them then I am, and I am the youngest son of our father."

"You speak out of turn!" Seftut said, but Saim shook his head.

"I don't. My time here has taught me that. I will not bow to you as I did in that vision, nor will I listen to you speak ill of the Mighty One. She has waited as long as the Tombkeepers for the return of the Pharaoh, longer even, and suffered more then us. Unlike us, who marry and change with each generation, she remains, the only member of his court still alive." Saim now glared at his brother who held the Scales, feeling somehow stronger then he had before. "She is the Mighty One, the one who protected the Pharaoh from harm until the end, and the one who has become my friend. They," he motioned to Phileas and Rebecca Fogg, as well as Jules Verne, "have become my friends. When we are free of this place, I will tell them the location of the Pharaoh's lost tomb."

Seftut glared at him, the Scales starting to tilt until Jules walked in front and held up the Millennium Rod and the Millennium Eye. She, in turn, held out her arm, allowing the Millennium Ankh to appear. Only the Rod glowed in response; the Eye twisted and sailed over to the Scales before settling on one of them, while the Ankh moved to a man with vacant looking eyes that she remembered from somewhere, though his name escaped her at the moment 2. Jules' now blue eyes glared at Seftut before the Egyptian seemed to realize exactly what had gone on.

Seftut glared at the Foggs, then at Jules and the Mighty One, but his harshest remained for Saim. Saim met the glare, feeling his heart tear. He lost both of his siblings today...but he was free of the tyranny of Kul Eruna and the Tombkeepers there.

"Then stay in the Tomb, and protect the Memory of the Pharaoh. Whoever wishes to join you from our clan will be free to."

Saim nodded his thanks only briefly, and Seftut turned and barked his harsh order to leave the castle.

As the men left, the Foggs looked at Jules, who looked back with a small smirk. "I had to ensure that certain things happened. Your friend cannot use the Millennium Items, but my Soul is bonded to the Rod. In whatever place, Life or Death, it calls to me, and allows me to manipulate what I must."

"So you took over our friend's body?" Rebecca asked, the subject obviously painful for her.

"Not as that man Lazarus did. Your friend is aware of what is going on, and free to stop me from anything. His holding of the Book of Knowledge allows it."

"I'm confused," Phileas put in.

"You would be."

"Now I _know _you're not Verne. But beside that...are you quite done? Because like Lazarus or not, your possessing our friend's body is quite unnerving."

Verne opened his mouth to speak but the Mighty One put a hand on his head. "Seto, stop it. Let him go."

A sigh came. "Very well. But I miss you."

"I miss you as well. Still...tell me that in the Land of the Dead, you and the one who had the White Beast are--."

A light flush came onto Verne's cheeks. "She is there, yes. And...we are happy."

A sad smile came across the Mighty One's face. "I'm glad. You have no idea how glad I am...though I wish it didn't take you until Death to be reunited."

Verne gave his own sad smile. "We all await you. The time of the Pharaoh's return is near. By the time this calendar reaches the second millennia of their Holy King's birth, he will arrive 3."

The Mighty One blinked back surprise, and between that, Verne closed his eyes, and reopened them as Jules Verne, the spirit forever gone from him.

1—This curse is a mention of Marik and Ishizu (Isis) Ishtar, from the Battle City part of Yugioh. Those two are from a long line of Tombkeepers who watched over the Pharaoh's tomb. However, you have two divisions of Tombkeepers: one who protects the King's Memory and who have the Rod and Necklace, and those who protect the Door, and who have the rest of the Items, except the Puzzle. I just have the reason why they were split up here. As for Saim's 'counter curse', that is actually spoiler territory, so I really don't want to go there, other then to say that Marik is not all that bad. Sadistic and evil, sure, but there is a good kid in there somewhere, but you have to watch all through Battle City to see it come back out.

Again, no spoilers for those who might watch it, though if you ask in a review I might be a snitch and say more.

2—The man mentioned is Shada, a man who might be rather old or young, no one can tell. He ends up gaining control of the Tombkeepers. You first meet him in the original manga as the holder of the Millennium Scales and the Millennium Ankh. Later, you learn that he met with Pegasus and gave him the trial of the Millennium Eye. Due to the fact that he seems older then he looks, I added in the fact that he was there, as well as him having met Sakhmet before.

3—According to the Yugioh manga and some of the show, the Millennium Puzzle, or at least the tomb, was officially discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. However, all those who went in died, and the last words uttered was "The Shadow Games". In the 1960s, Yugi's grandfather, who at the time was a gambler, went into the tomb to play 'the hardest game ever', and ended up being saved by the spirit of the Pharaoh, and gained the Puzzle. In the 1990s, after about seven or eight years working on it, it was finished by Yugi and the Pharaoh was unleashed. This is Seto giving Sakhmet hope for her future. And I said "By this calendar" because I'm fairly sure that the Egyptians used a completely different calendar. The Chinese have a different one as well, which is far older then ours, and Muslim calendars are also different from ours, mainly because I think they're based off a lunar calendar.


	8. The Sun and The World

Chapter 10: The Sun

"_Happiness—The light illuminates those who are able to direct it and blinds those who abuse it."—The Egyptian Tarot_

The woman sighed as she sat, unable to really do much except think. The Tombkeepers had allowed them to leave, and she was sure they would return the stone White Beast to its resting place in Seto's tomb as it's guardian. Passepartout had been awaiting them and what news, as well as being ready to bandage up wounds, only some of which were on the Foggs and most of which happened to have gone unnoticed by the woman, though luckily none were as bad as when she had fought the thief or Akunadin.

"You should be taking better care," Passepartout had chided her.

"I've had worse."

"Oh?"

"You try fighting two demons while in a rage, see how well you come out of it. The only reason I stayed so long after my sebah died was because I was healing...and my other insisted on it."

Jules gave a small smile, then turned back to his drawings. The spirit of the woman's other has allowed him more insight in to the past, including seeing the fight against the Pharaoh with his own eyes, as well as the events that followed afterwards...the building of the Pharaoh's tomb, the rebuilding of the cities that had been harmed, as well as finding suitable candidates for the remaining Millennium Items.

_--Seto had been walking, thinking back once more to the girl, to the events, when a cry of rage had alerted him to what could come. He had rushed towards it, the dagger of the Millennium Rod ready, when he found himself facing a sight._

_Sakhmet stood over a dead priest, and Menw roared in rage next to her, obviously intent on tearing the man's body to shreds despite his expired nature. The King's Name List was behind her, on it spilt some blood over the part where the Pharaoh's name should be._

_Before he alerted her he turned to the stone tablet he had instructed the priests to make, to help the Pharaoh if his memory was lost._

_The bottom, where the Pharaoh's true name was supposed to be, had been defaced.—_

Seto had explained to him that the Pharaoh couldn't enter the Land of the Dead until he learned his True Name. There were two ways, both of which were known to Sakhmet, and now she simply waited for his return to ensure that he was able to find peace.

"Well," Rebecca said, "at least that's over. Though I doubt it will be the last we hear from the League."  
"They'll probably be out for revenge," Phileas said, looking to the woman, "you can stay, if you'd like."

"I said I would leave after this, and I keep my word."

Phileas frowned, then said, "Who says it's over?"

The woman looked over at him, blinking in surprise.

"I mean...I know you don't want to, or can't, reenter Egypt, but...well, you could meet us in a town nearby, to celebrate. We'll drop off Saim and he can be on his way. Plus, after all this, Saim can point out the way to the tomb and I can pass it along. As interesting as this all is, two different Egyptian experiences are enough for me this lifetime, thank you."

Rebecca gave a smile, "And anyway, it'll be _fun. _No bloodshed, just all of us celebrating our victories and the fact that you'll see your sebah in a few hundred years."

"Granted," Passepartout said, "we are not being around for it, but our children's children's children may be, and they can celebrate with you."

"That's a thought," Phileas said, and the woman looked at all of them, as if trying to find some excuse for arguing with them but none coming to mind through her shock.

Rebecca then clicked her fingers. "I almost forgot."

"Forgot?" the woman said, her voice soft as if she wasn't sure what would be next.

"Your name...the one I said I'd give you, at least for now. It's very nice, I think. Supposed to mean 'of the night'."

"What is it?"

Rebecca smiled. "Layla. Do you like it?"

The woman paused, then said the name, rolling it over like she was testing it before nodding, a small smile appearing. "Yes. I like it a lot."

-o-

Layla looked at the new man, a frown on her face. "Who is he?"

"A friend we picked up," Rebecca said, "Oh, don't get like that! We're here to have _fun_."

"_Fun _I'll have when I'm away from this place," Layla said, "We're too close to Egypt."

"Got in some trouble there?" the man asked, seeming to now take interest in the conversation between the two women.

"No, something a little more...complicated."

"Oh, and Saim told us to say that 'Naunet' was a good last name 1," Jules said, coming up with a smile.

Layla sighed. Of course Saim would say something like that...

"Come on," Phileas said, "we need to have our drinks."

Layla gave the ghost of a smile and walked into the place with them, sitting and toasting with them as they drank. Everyone but herself and Jules seemed to be having a good time. She wasn't because of her closeness to her home, to a place she had sworn to never enter until she had found her sebah.

Jules, though...there was something very wrong with Jules...

"Jules?" she questioned right before he nearly fell into the food they were being served. She and the stranger caught him, and she suddenly felt how warm he was.

_Fun...this had better not be part of that 'fun'._

-o-

Despite the attempts by everyone else to help out, Layla had stayed away from Jules' room, preferring to pray to her namesake.

Or so she said.

At times in the night she would sneak into Jules' room, watching him thrash in some nightmare, and slowly put her hand on his forehead, wishing for some residual power of the Ankh to aide him. She didn't trust what was happening here, nor his worsening condition. These four had made their way into her heart, convincing her to stay onboard until they reached Shillingworth Magna, the Foggs home, or even until depositing young Jules back to his studies in Paris.

She slowly brushed a stray strand of sweat-soaked hair from Jules' brow.

"Get better. I do not trust you in the hands of anyone but the Foggs."

-o-

Jules turned quickly in the darkened streets he was caught in, trying to find his way out or a peaceful face. A large griffin appeared before him, walking over to nuzzle him.

--"_What must I do?"_

"_You and I must become one for a time, and share our memories, our thoughts, and our existence. After what I have set out to do is done, then I will return to the Land of the Dead, and you will not hear from me again."_

"_What about that woman, Sakhmet?"_

"_I must tell her something, that is all. I miss her greatly, but—"—_

"Itert," Jules said, petting the griffin as the spirit called Seto had. A purr came from the animal and then it turned its head to look at something in the darkness. Jules saw a door that opened to a room full of drawings, his drawings, as well as writings and books and ideas. In the middle, locked, was the odd book that Argo who wasn't Argo wanted him to open, but every time it appeared in this place, he felt a sense of dread about opening and reading the book his mind and hands longed to touch and read.

"You understand but you don't."

"Layla?"

The woman smiled at him as she appeared. "Do you really think you should open the book?"

"...I don't know."

"What do you know?"

--"_It's called a Soul Room."—_

"What don't you know?"

--_Screams and pleas for mercy echoing through the room from behind the closed door, slowly dying down before it opened only partly, not allowing a view into the room.—_

"What do you wish to know?"

Jules answered, "I want to know what's going on! Tell me!"

Layla smiled. "You know, but you fail to acknowledge it. I am only a protector against disease, not against ignorance. If you want to fix that, then ask for Thoth, not me. 2"

Then this wasn't Layla? "Sakhmet?"

"Did you not know? That which you are, that which you were, and that which you shall be are bound by the Rule of Three 3; you can never return to who you were, and you can never know who you will be, but you can be who you are only for a moment. For this moment, here, I am Sakhmet, the protector against disease. In a moment later, I could be Sakhmet the Eye of Re, or Sakhmet as Hathor, or Sakhmet as Bast, or any number of other images and personas given to me, and my namesake, over the years 4. You are now a confused man, and confusion caused by something foreign. Rid yourself of it, and find who you can be."

Jules looked to Itert, then back only to find that Sakhmet was gone, and the doorway leading to the room with his drawings and the bound Book of Knowledge was gone.

-o-

Phileas looked over at her. "I don't trust him either."

"Then why are we going along with his plans? Jules has only been getting worse. I lived in Egypt, as well as Europe during the years of the plague. What that man is giving him, or says he's giving him, should be causing him less grief, not more. I can almost feel as if he is getting worse from some outside source."

Phileas frowned at this. While he knew that she seemed to understand this disease more then the good doctor, and had also been someone to say that he had something called the 'Book of Knowledge' in him, Phileas wasn't sure what they could do about it.

"So what do you propose we do?"

Layla sighed and sat down, looking worn, more so in the past few days then earlier. "I don't know. I wish I could keep that man away from him...but..."

"He may easily be our only hope."

"Yes. And I hate it."

"As do I," Phileas offered her a small tumbler and she took it gratefully, "but what other choice do we have?"

-o-

"Are you so scared still?"

Jules whirled, Itert turning with him. Since his last encounter with Sakhmet in this odd world of dreams, he was becoming more and more uncertain as to where reality was and where his dreams ended.

"I'm not opening it."

"I don't want you to. You want to, but not quite yet. You're uncomfortable and scared, you have no clue where you are, and you're sick...at least your body is. Because of that, your mind is trying to justify it's actions by creating illusions. Due to you having the Book of Knowledge in the first place, such things can be dangerous for you. Be glad Itert is nearby."

"Why?"

"He's protecting you in some ways. I suppose he's overly fond of you due to the fact Seto was within you for a while. He'll probably enjoy his time protecting you. He hasn't protected anyone for years."

He paused a she looked around and then suddenly blinked when he saw Rebecca. Itert growled and Sakhmet walked over to put her arms around Jules. "What do you want, Rebecca?"

_--The women he had watched from afar, and closer. The women he had loved—_

"He seemed so lonely, in the dark, always scribbling. No one to love.

--_Rebecca smiling at him, only in her corset, a wonderful view of her back—_

"I could love him..."

Sakhmet smiled as she leaned down and placed a gentle kiss along Jules' neck, making him shiver, his eyes closing slowly in pleasure as one of her hands held him up by the waist and another moved along his chest.

"He has me. I doubt he needs you...Adriana."

Jules blinked, then saw the Spider Queen—

-o-

Jules' eyes focused partly on Rebecca, who gave him a concerned look. "You can hear me?"

"rebecca..."

Layla smiled at him, her face slightly ashen, as if she was getting sick as well. She had started to come down more and more, often using it as an excuse to drive the doctor away, or at least take over the watch.

"my book...where's my book?"

"You lie still," Rebecca told him firmly as Passepartout, obviously worried, went to get the notebook but found it missing.

Layla frowned. That book, missing, was bad, and it was clear that the doctor had something to do with it.

-o-

"It's time for us to awaken," she told him.

"But..." all that had happened...even Itert had been unable to completely help him, except to protect him when he knew that this might not be real, that the images of his friends were simply illusions. He had warned him when Passepartout in his dreams/reality had been fake, had helped Jules to chase off the fake Foggs and the man who threw him into this state. Then Argo had appeared, and Itert had calmed, even nudging Jules forward to the offered hand before light, and now...

Now he wasn't sure of anything, only that somehow he was better, or closer to it.

"I've to return to who I am now."

"...you're not Layla?"

"That is who I will become, a woman who can open her heart to few, but who still feels the alliance of old. I am who she was, a girl who was just as scared as you were."

--_Fire, and a younger Phileas trying to fight only to get his arm nearly cut off, blood gushing as he fell forward to glare at the ones who had incapacitated him. A woman cried out a name that was unknown to Jules, then suddenly everything turned golden-hot like a forge, and a small pot of liquid gold, lined with red for only a second, appeared.—_

"I am who she was, you are at the crossroads of who you were and who you will be. The fever only accelerated your change. Now you must heal, and realize what the full truth is, as well as decide on what you will do with the future you choose."

Jules realized it. "You mean, if I open the Book of Knowledge or not."

"That's right. But remember, even in your hands, it is a double-edged sword. In anyone's hands, it cuts just as easily into both good and evil, light and dark. Remember, and awaken, Jules Verne."

Jules sat up and looked around curiously, remembering his few visits to the 'real world' during his sickness. He was in a hospital controlled by the League...and the last vision had Argo helping him...Itert had purred, and followed him somewhere...

He shook his head, trying to clear it, then looked over to see Passepartout fainted on the floor, but fine.

"Took you two long enough," the voice of Layla muttered. Her features were paler then before, but now she looked more then a little revived. "Come on. The Foggs are dealing with the exit."

The three headed out just as the door exploded, knocking them to the ground. Layla wasted no time in covering both of the men, obviously intent on protecting them as well as she could as the Foggs fired.

_--all of their fights, even the one where she saw Layla as Sakhmet fighting, destroying all men in her way—_

Jules finally realized all the shooting had stopped to some extent, and that Layla had allowed them to stand, helping them up. Most if not all of the orderlies were down, the only one left being the doctor with a stick of dynamite.

Layla sighed, looked at the two as they tried to shoot him but couldn't and he started to light the fuse.

With a roar, Itert jumped the doctor and pinned him, growling as the weight crushed him before looking at Layla and Jules. Jules was...well, he was sick, but this wouldn't help. Layla shrugged, then as the group headed for the door they heard the doctor's last scream before the sound was abruptly cut off.

The danger, for the most part, was over...and Jules fell back into the world of dreams, finding himself in his garret, thought with everything he had to assume it was really his Soul Room.

"It's safe now," Argo's voice caused Jules to turn, and at first he was reluctant, but finally he did open it.

A small glowing item...an atom...appeared and caused his whole Room to glow brightly, the signpost for all of his stories opened now for him to see.

1—'Naunet' is another Egyptian god, or at least one of the names of an Egyptian god, this one for the primordial gods of chaos.

2— Thoth is the Egyptian god of Knowledge, the counter-part of Isis in wisdom and magic. Sakhmet mentions him here because she is a patron against disease, while he is a patron of scribes (writers).

3—Slight Wiccan/magic idea, as well as a few others for this. The idea of this is anything you do to another, good or bad, will return to you threefold (or more, depending on the religion). Also depicting the aging of Man and Woman, who are said to have three stages of life: Youth, Maturity, and Old Age. Here, I say that who you were, who you are, and who you could be are the three, mainly because of the ending for another story involving Sakhmet.

4—Sakhmet is the Eye of Re, the one who is supposed to have brought the near-destruction of the human race. She also protects against disease (as she is doing rather cryptically for Jules). In some stories, she is another form of one of two goddesses; Bast (cat-headed goddess, also associated with being the Eye of Re, also becoming peaceful later on), and Hathor (a goddess with cow horns who carried the Sun, and was a favored daughter of Re. She is much more benign then the other two), brought up only when Re is angered with someone or when the Pharaoh goes into battle.

Chapter 11: The World

"_Reward—All things come together in modesty, all secrets are revealed, all chalices are filled and all wounds are healed."—The Egyptian Tarot_

The last thing that she wanted was to leave them, but promises were just that, and she never broke her word. Phileas could say that the danger wasn't over, the League now out for blood over the loss of their leader. Rebecca could easily agree and then add in that there were others who needed to be disposed of, and would be dangerous. She could even be evil and bring in Jules, and how much trouble _he _got into, if the events got as such.

Considering things, Layla didn't let them get as such. She had not been in Europe for a while, and the chance to explore when she had spent a good few centuries on the 'New World' was enough to make her stay, if only for a while. She had lived with both of the people on the new land, and found the earlier ones, the savages who were now pushed to the plains and deserts, to be a good deal more likeable then some of the European descendants who had moved in then west.

But she was still curious, and after a few weeks at Shillingworth while the Foggs made sure Jules was recovered (while also trying their underhanded methods of making her stay), she decided to join Jules in Paris for a little while before leaving on her own adventures.

If the Foggs weren't there they couldn't stop her from leaving a few days, or hours, later.

They had been dropped off and Rebecca had been called to duty, one too dangerous for Jules to come with and too peaceful to have Layla wander into. As they left, Jules looked at her skeptically. "Are you going to run now or can I at least treat you to lunch?"

"I can wait until after lunch, thank you Jules."

It seemed so odd that Jules would be this connected to her, but she supposed it had to do with his brief possession by Seto. While it had pained her in a way to hear and almost see Seto again, even through Jules, it also gave her hope, and she had not had that for a long time.

Jules showed her to the dirtier part of Paris, where he lived with his other artistic friends as well as stayed near some brothels that often appeared in such parts of the city. She was introduced to the half-drunk Felix Nadar, who greeted and then flirted with her while she at some of the bread, cheese and wine that was served.

It was relaxing, a chance to get away. She kept her promise as well, and after they had finished with lunch, as Jules became drawn into his notebook by some vague idea, she quietly got up and bid him and Nadar goodbye, though she promised to return.

-o-

Years were never kind to immortals, but the years following her meeting with the Foggs and Jules Verne turned out to be kind enough. The Foggs made little effort to find her unless it was an emergency or to warn her of recent League activity, but it seemed that the death of Count Gregory stopped many wheels in the League from turning properly. Jules was more then ready to invite her on quests, at least one of which involved going to the center of the earth, then another involved a man with a submarine, Captain Nemo. While Layla was not comfortable with any of being under water, she understood some of the reasons Nemo did what he did, and thus ended up befriending the odd Captain as well, two people who were forever separated from their homes. 1

And all through this it seemed like they didn't change at all. They grew older, Jules seemed to grow wiser as he wrote more and more, and between that time, Layla disappeared, appearing maybe once or twice, or sending along something interesting she had found during her travels.

They were in her heart, but she didn't want it to break again by staying too close to any of them.

-o-

Jules sighed as he looked over to see the eternally-young Layla walk up. "How are things?"

"Fine. I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you were trying to stay away from Shillingworth."

A book, one he quickly recognized as the English version of his newest work _Around the World in 80 Days_, was held up. He smiled as she walked up before saying, "I was amazed that the rumor I heard about Fogg marrying some lovely Indian lady was true. I was even more surprised when Rebecca told me that she's Nemo's daughter."

"He's supposed to appear in a few days for the more formal wedding. He agreed to help with something called the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for some pardons and the ability to see his daughter married." 2

Layla gave a small laugh and sat down. "I also heard that Fogg told some lord about the location of my sebah's tomb. Though, according to what else I've heard from Rebecca, that expedition might have to wait until next century." 3

Jules nodded and looked out at the lovely hills of Shillingworth Magna, remembering his times there as well as the smile on Fogg's face. For a very long time it seemed almost natural that Fogg and Rebecca would be together, but slowly both had found their own, and while they were still close, it was odd how it turned instead to be more a connection of two siblings then that of lovers.

Jules couldn't complain, though. His own wife was wonderful, and his children loved Layla whenever she came to visit, or even when she sent them presents from afar.

"Are you going to stay any longer then the wedding?"

"A few days."

"You should stay longer."

"...I don't want to. Something seems to be brewing in the air, something I don't like. I want to see what I can find. Besides, some nice American I met before meeting you just reappeared, and needs my help." She smiled as she remembered running into someone she hadn't thought of for a long time. "I'm amazed he's still around, though he and his friend are in more trouble then usual." 4

"Who is he, maybe I've heard of him. I am world-renown, you know."

Layla ruffled Jules' hair. "Don't let it get to your head. You're still the young man I met, scribbling and unsure of yourself. And either way, you wouldn't. Sam Clemens did, though. Wrote about them, as well."

"Sam Clemens? He's still around?'

Layla nodded. "Mark Twain."

Jules blinked then nodded. "I guessed as much."

"Ah," it appeared Phileas now noticed them, as he walked out with a woman that had exotic features, Passepartout close behind. "You made it."

"I wouldn't miss your wedding, Phileas," Layla said, standing up, "you must be Auoda. I'm Layla Naunet, a friend of the family."

"I have heard of you, from my father and from Phileas. I'm pleased to finally meet you," the woman said with a slight bow. Layla returned it, and smiled at Passepartout, "I'm glad to see they didn't lose you, either, Passepartout. Could you show me where the tea is, I'm slightly parched."

Passepartout nodded and the group walked in, Layla learning what she could of the daring rescues and adventures that was started on a bet.

-o-

Layla was both grateful and hateful of newspapers, seeing the news that the last of the party had died. She felt tears in her eyes as she bought it and opened to read the article.

Years passed, and she hated them for it. The Foggs had grown and lived a very long time, as had everyone, but just as all those whom she had known, they died and crossed to the other side. Last night, exhausted, she had slept only to find Jules speaking to her sebah, renewed as he had been when she first met him, though she had known he was older, his hair white and a full beard covering his handsome face.

"Jules..."

Jules smiled at her when the boat came over, Phileas sitting nearby before standing, his self the same persona as when she had met him as well. "'Bout bloody time, Verne. We were all getting worried."

"I had to take care of things," Jules argued back before looking over at Layla, who looked at them then at her sebah. He had moved far away from the ship, as if he knew the question that was going to come out from her lips.

_Take him with you. Let me wander this bank alone, and take him with you as my payment._

When Phileas had died, and Erasmus had been his guide across, the question had been asked and unluckily refused. The same went for Rebecca, Auoda, Passpeartout, Nemo, Tom, Huck...

All she had known were gone.

Jules walked up and touched her shoulders before hugging her close, and she finally allowed her tears at his death to flow.

"Don't leave me alone."

"You're not. All of the Foggs, they've all been touched by your life. At least one each generation is asked to keep tabs on you, and I know you know that. In this century your sebah will reawaken. You only have a century."

"Each year is getting longer, Jules. Each year, I know I get closer, so that each year will get longer, each month, each day. How much more would anyone be able to take?"

"Remember who you are," Phileas' voice cut through, "Are you not Sakhmet, the Eye of Re? You killed most of the League on your own, helped us achieve more then we would've had you not been there. We gave you the name Layla, and before that he gave you the name Sakhmet."

Layla paused at this, and then looked at Jules, who smiled slightly. "You were once Sakhmet, the lady of death, and now you're Layla, our family. You're becoming her, and you know that. I have the idea that when this is all over, when your sebah crosses, you'll cross as well...the person who you are now. The person you are becoming will remain, and help those who might also have that void left from your sebah leaving. Can you accept that?"

Layla felt herself continuing to cry, then finally gained the courage to say, "no more then I could accept the center of the earth, or the submarine of Nemo. But I can adapt to it, and then accept it. Thank you. All of you."

The two men smiled, Jules walking over to get onto the ship while Phileas said, "We expect you to go over the river with a bright attitude! You will not cry until both of your feet and the feet of your sebah touch the other side! Understood?"

"Who are you to order me, Phileas Fogg?" she asked, half-heartedly a threat, before nodding and waving. From behind her, her sebah walked up and smiled.

"You didn't ask this time."

"He was the last one...none of those who flew on the Aurora are left."

"But there is their family, and their friends."

Layla closed the newspaper as she sighed, then looked up. Nearby, the dark-haired Nathanial Fogg gave a sheepish smile at having been caught following her.

The paper was neatly folded as she walked into the crowded street, disappearing as she always did, leaving Nathaniel to try and find her once more. He loved that game, even in his youth, and made a wonderful spy for it.

_I have their family, what is left of their friends, and I have my hope. For now, that may be all I need._

_Everyone, thank you for that...for that strength to continue. I will not cry in that realm until I have stepped onto the other side with my sebah._

_Then I will be with them all, and then, only then, can I cry for joy._

_--"You're our dear sister!" her sebah said. "I don't care what happens, I'm not going to let you be lonely."_

_"Same here," her other said, "and it will all be as it should. I will follow Akunadin as the High Priest, the second to the Pharaoh and his advisor. He will be the Pharaoh, the incarnate of Ra..."_

_"And what will I be but your sister? Or would you rather I be one of your wives?"_

_Both boys made disgusted faces, but she expected as much. "No," her sebah said, "you will be the protector. You'll be the one who protects us from harm."_

_"I already do that."_

_Her other smiled, "Then you'll also protect our children, and our children's children. You said yourself that your heart is a scarab, which will live forever or until it breaks. We'll make sure it never breaks, because you'll always have us, or some part of us, to protect."_

_She looked at them, and felt tears in her eyes. How? She hadn't cried since the day her family was murdered._

_"You're crying!"_

_She turned her head but both boys moved it so she had to face them. Then both smiled._

_"We'll make sure all your tears are tears of joy," her sebah said._

_"And no one will make you cry. If they do, they'll have to answer to us, and we're the strongest."_

_"i..."_

_They were within her heart, and didn't realize they would later, through cursed events, end up breaking it.—_

Layla disappeared into the bustle of a crowd, listening as more news came in and wondering about what would happen within the next century.

1—I read up too much on _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen _and such. What I know of Nemo, as he is put into the graphic novel and movie, is that he was a radical that was later banned from pretty much all land, so he took to the sea in the _Nautilus._ He was written about twice by Jules Verne, once in _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea _and again in _Mysterious__ Island_(I think that was the book). In the second book, Jules gave him an Indian background, which is why I made him Auoda's father.

2—_The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen _is the ultimate crossover. During the end of the century, England is threatened and some mysterious man known as "M" puts together a group of some of the best, or worst, people he can find, usually offering them what they want to change their situation. In the book, the _League _consists of those who are mainly from England or English colonies (sorry Nemo), and who are supposed to find an item which creates flying machines and was stolen by the Chinese. They succeed, but end up giving the item to Moriety, the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Homes (who is believed dead at this time). Moriety wishes to create a flying machine to bomb the part where the Chinese were and defeat the lord there, in a type of gang-war. The League, intent on stopping this, board the ship and defeat Moriety. They end up staying banded together due to the fact that they could be useful later on.

In the movie, added to the _League _is the American Tom Sawyer and the immortal Dorian Gray, and while the villain is ultimately the same. A few character changes are also added in from the book, such as the Invisible Man not being the original from the book, but another man, and with Jekyll needing a serum to transform into Hyde (in the book, stress or sudden violence towards him will cause him to change into Hyde). As well, Dorian betrays the group, while in the second book, the Invisible Man is the one who betrays the group. As well, Mina retains some vampiric qualities in the movie, while only the bite marks left by Dracula (hidden by a scarf), are what remains of her attack. She is also divorced from her husband, while in the movie he was dead.

3—Again, in the Yugioh manga and animeverse, the Millennium Puzzle is not found until the beginning of the century. Due to the fact that Mutou Sugoroku doesn't actually obtain it until the 1960's through a tombrobbing expedition, it can only be assumed that because all the first explorers died, none of the original items were brought out of the tomb. As well, the tomb and Puzzle were guarded by two Shadow Games, both of which were deadly to those who didn't know what to do. Sugoroku got through the first one by chance, and the second one because his heart wasn't going for gold and riches, but simply to defeat a game honorably. He almost lost, but was pulled up by the spirit of the Pharaoh, and thus gained the Millennium Puzzle.

4—Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, this going back to the League note. In the novelization of the movie, Tom is after the Fantom because he and Huck had been following him, and Huck had ended up taking a bullet and dying. Tom went after the Fantom for revenge and to continue the mission, then ended up with the League. In this, I'm saying that due to his job, as well as due to Layla having been in America for a few years before the Civil War broke out, he and Huck would've run into her at one point. The two probably reminded her a good deal of others she had met, like her sebah and Mahaado (the fact that those two seem so close is played on greatly in the anime, with the Pharaoh and Mahaado, as well as Mana, seeming to have a very close relation as friends. It's also hinted at in the manga, and as well at other times, as the Dark Magician is Yugi's favorite card, and almost always seems to appear during critical Duels to help bail him out), and she probably met them afterwards and befriended them, which is hinted later, as their names appear in the grouping of those who she saw crossing over to the other side of the river.


End file.
